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1785 
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CUBA 



XT 1ST D E R 



SPANISH RULE. 



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By DR. V. de ROCHES- llWKas) 



(From the " Revue Contemporame.") 



-:o: 



NEW YORK : 

GREAT AMERICAN ENGRAVING* AND PRINTING COMPANY, 
Nos. 21 & 28 Ann Street. 






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CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 



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The Queen of the Antilles it appears is about to free herself 
from Spain, either by means of an arrangement between the 
United States and the Spanish Government, or by the insurrec- 
tion, which, unaided, in the end, will bring about the same re- 
sult. The separation from the mother country is now a fact 
inevitable. It would' not be uninteresting to examine the cause s 
which have brought about the breaking up of former relations. 
But this will be easier of comprehension when one looks to the 
administration of affairs, to the judicial and taxation regime. He 
will then see how legitimate and just are the causes which have 
impelled the Cubausto raise aloft the standard of revolt. This 
work was written before the late events which have taken place ; 
its author lived in the Island during many years, and speaks of 
nothing except what he saw, and although a victim of the system 
there practiced, he has observed the strictest impartiality. If 
at any time the recital of sad events has disturbed. his equani- 
mity, which always admits of excuse, yet in truth he has copied the 
very words of official documents whose authenticity is .undisputed. 
The reader has under eye an exact picture of Spanish dominion 
in Cuba, and can detect from an examination of the same con- 
sequences which enable him to judge whether or no the mother 
country has in good faith fulfilled her duties or compremises, in 
short, he can cleiermine on .which side of the Atlantic are right 
and justice in these matters to be found. 

Above all, the head of the Government is enthroned as a great 
dignitary, reuniting in himself the civil authority as well as mili- 
tary, and is, moreover, protector of the religious authority ; 
takes as titles Captain General, Governor Superior Civil of the 



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4 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

Isle of Cuba, President of its Real jludiencia (highest court), 
and Vice-Royal Patron of its Churches. And all this is true, 
for he commands the army and marine, and has the direction of 
all branches' of administration, including that of the treasury ', 
watches over civil justices ; regulates and even suspends the tri- 
bunals, that extraordinary tribunals may supply their places 
whenever he may think the event demands it. In respect to 
religious affairs he has not much sway. Beyond having the 
church bells rang at his approach into any of the town and vil- 
lages, he yields to the bishops the right to do what they please ; 
but unless they do or cause this thing to be done, he sends them 
to Spain, as has happened. Besides, the Captain General is 
president of all the societies and corporations established in the 
island. Without his presence, or that of those delegated by 
him, nothing can be done ; not even can a meeting of share- 
holders of a stock company be legally held. His powers are un- 
limited, as are also his functions ; he gives no account of his 
conduct other than to the government of the mother country ; 
and then only to the Sovereign, when, as happened with General 
Lersundi, who was freed from interference on the part of the 
Minister of the Colonies before accepting the position. The de- 
cree of the 25th May, 1825, which regulates his powers, confers 
upon him " the full use of the faculties which by royal ordinance 
are conceded to governors of besieged towns." There is no re- 
medy as against him while in office, and when he has given up 
the command to his successor, complaints are heard in the illu- 
fior y juicio de residencia. 

Beyond this, and until this epoch arrives, there exists no re- 
medy to him who complains, other than remaining in patience 
and advancing large sums for the purpose of carrying on the 
trial. If he be young, and is disposed to fight it out, and besides 
has money to back him, perhaps he may succeed in obtaining 
a sentence which declares that he has been a victim of ill-used 
power — nothing more. A functionary as much occupied as the 
Captain-General, should be well remunerated. He is in the re- 
ceipt of a salary of $50,000 per annum, and has a palace in the 
city and a chateau in the country. 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 5 

This charge would be a little too heavy for Spain, where the 
Prime Minister is paid only $6,000 per annum, but it is the 
Isand of Cuba that pays the expenses ; yes, this sum it pays 
unaided to its royal jailor ! Besides, if he wishes to raise unlaw T - 
ful taxes, who is to hinder him ? True, all do not do this, but, 
without doubt, many have so done. 

M. D'Harponaille, in his admirable work on the Island of 
Cuba (La Reina des Antilles, Paris, 1850, says, in speaking of 
the administration of General O'Donnell, from 1843 to 1848 : 
The clandestine introduction of African slaves encountered no 
opposition in him, though he received but a small tax or benefit 
on account of his vice-royal concessions. Such was the case 
also with the greater part of his predecessors. On arriving he 
intimated that he was an enemy of the slave trade, but we, at 
least, know that he was not of that which it produced for the 
Governor. "For each negro there was paid an ounce, or $17, to 
this personage. The custom, from long user, has acquired the 
force of a law. Here we should, perhaps, stop, but it would be 
proper to add, such scandalous contracts were entered into that 
his wife had the control of the monopoly, that which occasioned 
such noise." 

After the Captain-General came the Commanding-Generals, 
the Civil Governor of the Departments. These high function- 
aries are looked up to with nearly the same respect on the part 
of those governed by them as the Captain-General himself, 
under whose direction, more or less, they move. 

They increase as much as possible the authority, civil and mil- 
itary, preside over the City Council of the capital, and intervene 
in public works through the lieutenants of the Governor, settle 
and arrange the contributions, whose sum is fixed by the Sover- 
eign authority, apply at will the correctional punishments by 
prison and fines, up to forty days in the one case, and $50 in the 
latter. Taken from the line of the militay, in order that they 
may not lose the custom of governing they manage a depart- 
ment as a military headquarters, and treat the people as common 
soldiers. Their pay is $12,000 per annum ; they are given, be- 
sides, houses and other accessories. 



f) CUBA UNDEB SPANISH RULE. 

The governors of the departments have under their orders the 
lieutenant-governors, commanders of the jurisdictions which are 
in number 31. These are divided into partition at the head of 
which there is a functionary named by the governor, and who 
entirely depended upon him for orders. As to the administra- 
tion of these lower functionaries nothing more appropriate can 
be said than what was the opinion of the Cuban delegates to 
Madrid hi 1866 : " The lieutenant-governors invested as they 
are, with the military command and the presidency of the coun- 
cils, a^ well as directions of the captains of par lidos in their small 
precincts, are the sources of a great calamity tor the Island of 
Cuba. Nominated by the governor superior civil, without the 
slightest bond of interest with the inhabitants whom they are 
sent out to govern, without the slightest care; for the opinion 
that may be formed of their conduct in the locality where tin 
to pass a few years of their lives, and to which they never e: 
to return when once their commands are given up, they become 
petty tyrants who cannot bear any sort of contradiction. If 
disposed to be bad, all the avenues towards becoming rich are 
open before them, to the cost of the people governed. If influenc- 
ed by sentiments of honor — they are, at any rate, ignorant of the 
wants of their districts, and have no persoual interest other 
than in inaugurating some work, however useless it may be,th at 
may perpetuate the remembrance of their administration. This, 
let it be said, does not prevent the greater part of the municipal 
resources from being consumed in expenses of representation, 
house expenses, and pay of employees. We have seen various 
localities in the interior of the Island where though the muni- 
cipal moneys levied and collected were large enough yet were 
almost entirely consumed in pay of employees, house rent and 
furniture, and if there were any funds remaining unspent these 
were devoted to the laying out of a paseo or square in which 
some stone was found erected to the honor of the captain-general, 
his wife, or daughter. 

As to the captains of partido, whatever might be said would 
be insufficient to convey a definite idea of the truth. They come 
to the different districts with a pay of $50 to $100 a month for 



CUBA "UNDER SPANISH RULE. 7 

self and f amity, which, however does not hinder them from grow- 
ing richer day by day. "We prefer to be silent on this point, re- 
ferring- as we do to the captain-generals who have governed the 
island, and whom we have heard often deplore their own impo- 
tency in the matter of preventing the frauds upon which the 
captains del partido fattened and grew rich. "Informaciones de 
Reformas en Cola. Tome 2o,j?. 136." 

If, after having examined analytically the mechanism adminis- 
trative, we should reconstruct it synthetically, we would bind 
ourselves in the presence of a despotic government of the first 
class ; looking to the fact that it can condemn to prison, banish 
from the country, or send out at call and without the interven- 
tion of the tribunals whom it chooses, and even go so far as to 
confiscate property ; seeing that it imposes and distributes the 
taxes without the tax -payers having a hearing in the premises ; 
inasmuch as the country has neither a provincial nor a muni- 
cipal representation, not even for the purpose of looking into its 
necessities. Nor has it the right to discuss its own proper in- 
terests, or to participate with the government in the direction of 
public affairs. It is not permitted even to publish opinions or 
thoughts without a severe and fastidious censorship shall have 
been previously passed ; and to this is sometimes added an ex- 
amination by the ecclesiastical authority. 

The municipal representation exists really only in appear- 
ance — it is a mere fantasm. Chosen by the government from a 
list presented by the largest tax-payers, there is nothing of the 
independent connected with it, nor is there anything initiative 
in it. It has no power to control local interests, nor to fix or 
distribute the municipal taxes, except under the presidency of 
the Governor and with ratification of the Captain-General. The 
administration of real property, the use of the taxes, works of 
public utility, all these in fact are in the hands of the Governor, 
and the intervention of the Council is for nothing more than to 
give an aspect of legality to what is done. Thus we behold the 
principal towns in a condition of filth amounting to repugnance, 
without communications, with streets seldom paved, and through 
which rur deep sewers that the rain heaps full, and in which all 



8 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

the filth of the neighborhood is deposited. There are no decent 
hospitals, nor asylums for the mad. There is an establishment 
in Havana, but in the other towns lunatics and madmen are 
placed in the common jail, as was the case in the middle age**. 
These towns are left without means of any kind to prevent the 
approach of disease, or to succor the indigent ; and notwith- 
standing this, the Councils are perplexed by the weight of an 
enormous debt that the tax, however great it be, never pays off. 
Such is the state of the large towns. What succeeds in the 
smaller ones can be readily imagined. This is so in Santiago de 
Cuba, the second city of the isle, which for eighteen months has 
not paid its gas bills, nor police, nor school expenses, and all 
the other towns are in nearly the same fix. Moreover, there is 
no regular line of roads which unites the centres of the popula- 
tion together. The administration of the towns is an index of 
the administration of the whole country. Here we see the fruits 
of an absolute government imposed upon the country by the 
Mother Country. 

To carry out this regime the ministers who succeed each other 
in Spain, free themselves from their political compromises by 
sending out to Cuba, upon large pay, functionaries without an- 
tecedents which justify their selection. At the head of an 
irresponsible government there is found a public accountability 
and another one secret, a scheme of taxes officially promulga- 
ted, and another one of a private character. So in fact while 
there figured in the tax scheme of Spain for the year 1866 the 
sum of $4,400,000 of Cuban money there is no mention of pen- 
sions paid out of these same moneys, neither of the expenses of 
Fernando Po, which are four times that sum. Neither does it 
include the unjust exactions occasioned by reason of the cost of 
the St. Domingo war, or those of the Mexican, Chilean or Per- 
uvian difficulties, nor the $6,000 paid to the Queen's confessor. 
The Mexican and St. Domingo expeditions sailed out from Cu- 
ba and were paid for out of her money. All the coal of the 
Pacific squadron, was contracted and paid for at Havana. Mendez 
Nunez (the admiral) came to Sto. de Cuba for provisions. The 
decree of 19th October, 1868, reveals to us the fact as to Padre 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 9 

Claret's pension, which it suppressed. But is it less rediculous 
and unjust to make Cuba pay the expenses of Fernando Po 
than the pension of P. Claret, by the use of the same powers 
as were exercised in the other house ? It is because the minis- 
try in Spcdn was changed, and not the relations between Spain 
and Cuba ; there is one ministry more and one Padre .Claret 
less. 

The Treasury Minister has no means of getting out of the 
difficulty except by putting his hands, unopposed, into the cash 
box of Cuba and Porto Rico. There was a time, it was two 
years ago> when the treasury played traitor and showed signs of 
insolvency, when> in factj the government having drawn out all 
the capital of the Spanish bank of Havana, reserved to pay its 
circulation, was forced to pay its highest interest bearing ob- 
ligations with depreciated paper, or authorize the Bank to do 
so in contradiction of its charter and of the law regulating the 
payment of its notes. Then commerce and industry had to do 
business without money. In this contingency a forced circula- 
tion of the notes was ordered by the government ; hence a pan- 
ic spread through all classes, and numerous bankruptcies were 
the result, hence the discontent of the country increased, and 
this ran into insurrection. This government, let us resume, is 
a political' monopoly which excludes popular representation, an 
intellectual monopyly which keeps in reserve the emission of 
thoughts, a religious monopoly which imposes only one mode 
of belief and worship, the monopoly commercial which imposes 
its flag and its products. All these assertions will be proved in 
this relation. 



n. 

This despotic government is very expensive, but has it the 
merit of preserving order in a heterogenoeus populations. Let 
us examine this question. 

If we look to the order which reigns on the sugar estates we 
find that it is due to a discipline established, a long time past, by 



10 CUBA UNDER srANISH RULE. 

the proper inhabitants of the Island, and on them it reflects 
honor. Is it less a matter of surprise to see the negroes of a 
sugar estate obey a few whites than to see the large crew of a 
ship of war out in the midst of the ocean obey the staff which 
commands it? The relative leniency of the slavery of our days, 
the interested solicitude, in part of the master, the prestige that 
the white exercises over the negro, and that which the free man 
has over the slave, aid as much as discipline in the matter of 
maintaining order. The government seldom intervenes between 
the master and the slave ; should the latter fly away the agents 
of the public force, rare in the country, take no steps towards 
arresting him. This is the duty of the master, and if unable to 
do it himself he employs a slave catcher, who, for five dollars, 
does the work. Ordinarily he does not even do that, but waits 
for the slave to return voluntarily, which he generally does with 
a padrino (protector), who is some inhabitant of the vicinity. It 
is very rare that the negro is away more than four or five days 
without desiring to return to the hut where lives his mother, 
his wife, or his children, to his little patch, his corral, to the 
companions of his diversions as well as the sharers of his labors, 
in a word, to the domestic hearth and its accessories. There 
are some negroes who never return. These build on the highest 
mountains or in the deepest woods, what in the country are 
called loalenqucs. Them the government permit to remain 
in tranquillity, notwithstanding the harm they cause to travel- 
lers and to estates. The government has so little to do 
with established order that for two months after the occupation 
of the Eastern Department by the insurgents servile labor 
continued as before. The rebels proclaimed emancipation at 
the beginning of January, and the negroes still did not move ; it 
was found necessary to tear them away from the ingenios. and 
by the middle of February the greater part had gone back to 
them again. Up to this time no serious violence had been com- 
mitted on the persons of the whites by the negroes, except in the 
death of a man, in whose house a slave had been assassinated, 
but by whom was unknown. Nor down to this time was there 
any proof that the slaves had any ideas of vengeance against 
their masters, or that they had been illy-treated 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 11 

Persons who foiin an opinion of the social state in Cuba from 
the history of our ancient colony of St. Domingo find it difficult 
to comprehend how freemen of color can live in good under- 
standing under the pressure of a government, strongly contitut- 
ed, which keeps them in peace ; there are 260,000 against 
794,000 whites. These are equal to the latter before the laws 
in every thing affecting civil rights, and so far as those denomi- 
nated political are concerned, neither the one or the other enjoy 
them. There are distinctions founded in old, musty privileges, 
but repeated intermixing and fortune cause these to disappear. 
The public voice "besides" anticipates those favored by birth and 
fortune, and discerns the difference between gentlemen and 
people whose color and conduct betray their mixed origen. In 
another generation all this will have disappeared. 

It is easy to understand that the government has no difficulty 
in keeping good order where no one desires to disturb it. But 
let us ask, Has peace always existed without clouds? and has 
the free colored population ever relied upon the slaves to inau- 
gurate a social war? or have the negroes ever made an attempt 
to break their chains ? There has never been a serious project 
of anything of the kind, though it was supposed in 1844 that a 
conspiracy had been discovered in Matanzas on the part of 
blacks. 

In every manner this conspiracy wa,s greedily used as a 
means to make money by the police and military commissions. 
"That no complotwas formed," says a Spanish author who held 
important trusts on the Island at this period, "cannot be denied, 
but never to the extend supposed. That in the proceedings di- 
rected by the military commissions and by a multitude of sub- 
agents there was, want of legality and impartiality, suchfas is 
demanded among civilized people when the matter of life and 
death to men is to be decided, needs no other proof than the 
punishment inflicted by the superior authority upon many fiscals 
(state attorneys) because of their venality and excesses, the 
suicide of two of these and the flight of others when they saw 
that their infamy had been discovered. The Secretary Don 
Pedro Salazer was condemned to prison. Three thousand color- 



12 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

ed persons were sentenced, the proof against whom was de- 
ficient in material points for the execution of projects which 
were attibuted to them.* " The banished, the condemned to 
prison were numerous, as were also the executions. The best 
poet of the Island, Gabriel Valdes, called Placido, was one of the 
victims," although, *'as said Pezeula," his criminality does not 
appear to be other than a sentence without explicit grounds." His 
ardent muse inspired him even while surrounded by iron bars. 
He went up to the place of execution reciting his " Plegari a 
a Dior," the veritable song of the swan, the best of his poms. 

This happened during the government of O'Donnell. Ten 
years before, General Taconhad instituted military commissions 
in a time of profound peace. But disorder and corruption were 
the foundations for the chronic state of the country under the 
regime of that government. It will be seen from the work already 
cited, that these tribunals fulfilled their mission by proceedings 
identical to those which gave them birth. M. D'HarponvUle 
relates the facts as conforming to a sentence pronounced in 
Madrid. (" Eeine des Antilles," p. 464, first edition.) 

In 1868, Captain -General Lersundi betook himself to the same 
resource, in order to aid — though in ordinary times — the impo- 
tency of the courts, " considering," as he said in his decree of 
4th of January, 1863, " the crimes, which are as frequent as 
scandalous, now being committed, we withdraw from the ordi- 
nary tribunals the trials of cases of homicide, robbery and in- 
cendiarism, whatever may have been the circumstances under 
which these were perpetrated by the guilty parties, or their ac- 
complices and those who harbor them, without distinction. 
These shall be tried by ..military commissions, established at Ha- 
vana, Santiago de Cuba, Porto Principe, Villa Clara, and Pinar 
del Rio. The specified charges will be remitted along with the 
criminal, if he has been arrested, to the disposition of the Presi- 
dent of the Commission within twenty-four hours, and the cause 
shall be put to trial in the quickest time possible, under the per- 
sonal responsibility of the President of the Judges and Fiscal 

*Diccoriuario de In Y«Ja de Cuba. Tomo 4 p. G39. 



CUBA UNDEK SPANISH RULE. 13 

(attorney of government), who will not forget for an instant that 
the principal object in the installation of these commissions 
military is to have a speedy disposition of matters, in order that 
justice may be as prompt as inexorable," &c. 

Notwithstanding the unfavorable antecedents of this institu- 
tion, and the want of confidence which the intervention of gov- 
ernment and military inspires, this hard measure of Lerscudi 
was well received by the great majority of the best people in 
the island. It is a sad thing to say so, but the ordinary tribu- 
nals, inattentive as corrupted, only commanded the respect of 
the good. Who did not feel himself menaced as well as his 
property when he saw crime unpunished and its authors go out 
of the prison-houses more audacious than ever ? Thus a subse- 
quent proclamation assured the criminals and those who testi- 
fied against them, " tnat once condemned the former should not 
again make their appearance in the country," to the end that 
the latter might not stand in fear of their vengeance. This as- 
surance was opportune, because the vicinage was accustomed 
to see the criminals escape public vengeance as well as that in- 
flicted by confinement in prison, which enabled them to avenge 
their informers and prosecutors. Without doubt, the military 
commissions as well as the civil tribunals might be composed of 
venal and corrupt judges, but the rapidity with which the pro- 
ceedings were carried on, far from inspiring, alarm was consid- 
ered as a guaranty against the uncertainty of legislation, the 
complication of judicial acts, the abuse of jurisdiction, and the 
fearful artifices of a shameless forum. I spoke of the uncer- 
tainty of legislation ? This results from the multitude of codes 
which govern us. We have the Law of the Indies, the Nueva 
Kecopilacion. La Novissima, the laws of tne Toro, El Fuejo Ju- 
zo, r ElFuero Real, the law of Enjuiceamiento Civil, El Bando 
de Gobernacion y policira, and de Partidas laws, without men- 
tioning the Ecclesiastical code, the Ordonnances of War and 
Marine and La Jurisprudence est ablecida. 

The tribunals are not less numerous. There are Justices of 
the Peace of the first instance andAlcal des M^ores, both civil 
and criminal ; Tribunals of Appeal or Real Audiencia, Tribunal 



14 CUBA UNDER SPANISH 11ULE. 

of Casacion at Madrid, Juzgado Ecclesiastico, Court of Military 
Orders, of War, of Treasury, of Marine, Tribunal of Cornni srce, 
and, in short, Military Commissions from time to time. 

The proceedings are complicated to a certain extent, because 
of the matter of jurisdiction. Fuerb signifies more than jurisdic- 
tion ; it comprehends, also, the idea of privilege. The clergy, 
the military, the marine, the grandees of Spain, the members of 
the military orders of knighthood, those who are decorated with 
certain honors have their appropriate tribunals, that is to say, 
there are appropriate tribunals for them. 

All those nearly related to — or even holding distant reations 
with those corporations enjoy, then- own proper privilege, such, 
as for instance, the military and the marines retired, the aux- 
iliaries and supernurneries of the army and marine, the coun- 
sellors and escrib m<>s (notaries) of the courts, their wives, chil- 
dren and servants. If one of these privileged persons be sued 
for a debt, and if he be adjudged to pay the sum demanded, he 
will immediately ask for another place of trial, and it becomes 
a matter of necessity to commence a new proceeding and pay all 
the costs accrued. 

One of the most remarkable things is that which raises ;i 
question of privilege as between the renter of a house and its 
owner. The first can leave the house whenever it suits him 
without auy notification, but the owner cannot force him to leave 
the house unless he shall have neglected for three consecutive 
months to pay the rent, and then a fixed time will be granted 
hi in within which to procure another house. If the renter pays 
faithfully the owner, the latter cannot demand that the house 
shall be vacated. This he can obtain only by way of compro- 
mise ; such as inhabiting it himself, or by shutting it up for four 
years. In no other way can the possession be obtained or the 
price raised, notwithstanding the fact that the value of rent of 
houses in the neighborhood ma}- have risen in value. However 
bard these conditions may be for the owner, he might get along 
very well in bearing them, but, unfortunately, he finds himself 
subjected to other conditions still worse ; for nothing is easier 
than fer renters of bad faith to buy up the judge to the end that 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 15 

lie may give them a long time to pay what is due, and the owner 
considers himself lucky if at the end of a year he should succeed 
in getting possession of his house, though losing all the rent. 
To avoid such prejudices, such scenes as these related below 
occur in which the sentiments of the renter are appealed to : 
" My friend, be so good as to leave my house. In such case I 
demand nothing of you for the last six months." " My clear 
sir," answered the other, " I am so much in love with your 
house that it would cause me much pain to leave it." " Be 
just," replies the owner, " I will pay the cost of moving." " I 
am always at your service," sneers the renter, but I am well 
here." "'Very well, we must go to law." " Well, we will 
go into the courts then," is the last answer.* 

In Cuba it is not the creditor who passes along with high 
head before his debtor, for the latter occupies the sidewalk ; and 
this is easily understood, for as there is no such thing as im- 
prisonment for debt, the debtor readily runs the risk of prison. 
son. In 1837, Tacon took out of the Havana prison a 
mason who had been shut up there forjforty years, because lie 
had demanded of a marquis his dues, and who probably 
pleaded to the jurisdiction of the court. In 1867, at Santiago 
de Cuba, a tailor asked of a rich man, for the second time, for 
the amount of his bill, which was a just one. The debtor put 
him off to the Greek kalends, which excited the indignation of the 
creditor, and he replied with some warm expressions. In any 
other country the matter would have gone at once before a com- 
petent tribunal, which would most probably have decided 
against the debtor ; but here, on the contrary, it was brought 
before the court of a drunken governor, who without delay, gave 
the decision in favor of the rich man and against the poor one, 
in favor of the friend and against the man unknown, and ordered 
the tailor to prison. It would seem that with so many especial 
jurisdictions, the ordinary tribunals could do -all the labor occur- 
ing in the year; but this is not so, if we believe the statement 
of the Regent of the Rsal Audiencia in his opening discourse 

* General Dulce slightly modified the rent-law by decree of lGth February, 1869. It 
was but little bettered. 



16 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

pronounced 2d of January, 1868, wherein he said : " The number 
of processes determined in the different courts of the Audiencia 
for the year 1866, amounted to 8,453, of which 4,673 ended by a 
sentence of sobresamiento f discharged for want of proof J* 
This is not because the worthy part of the people are brawlers 
or disposed to wrangle, but for the reason that the bad have the 
means of carrying on the litigation gratuitously, which is effected 
by having themselves previously declared, either really or pre- 
tendly insolvent — that which confers another additional privilege 
or right of jurisdiction. Though the judges might be incorrupt- 
ible and infallible, it is readily seen that in a proceeding so com- 
plicated, resources minister to the want of probity. There are, 
indeed, accommodations in the administration of Cuban justice, 
and with a few humble exceptions, the judges are not insensible to 
- bribery. At each change of the ministry there is a complete 
change of the personnel of those administering justice ; and from 
their offices at Madrid the larger part of the magistrates for the 
island come. Ignorant of the interests of the country on local 
customs, they cannot form a correct opinion even were they hon- 
est and possessing experience and a sense of justice. In short, 
the Cubans are deprived of the precious guaranty afforded by 
trial by jury ; and a single alcalde mayor renders alone, unaided, 
a decision which disposes of a man's life ! This, however, is 
subject to the revision and ratification of the Ileal Audencia. 
The influence produced by the decision of the judge, who first 
tried the prisoner, can be readily divined. 

This system of justice has been passed upon by one of the best 
known Spanish Magistrates, Varques Quivpo, fiscal that was of 
the Real Audicencia at Havana. " If justice was not dearer," 
says he, this would be only the half of the evil. Is it not worse 

* The document .shows the crimes and misdemeanors to have been as follows : 4,000 
offences against public order— that is to say, 35 more than in the previous year. 2,033 
attempts against the person— 348 more than previous year. 2 867 against property — 
202 more than the year before ; 52 charges for deceit — 12 more than in previous year ; 
51 against employees while in the exercise of their functions— 7 more than previous 
year. The crimes were : a patricide, three infanticides, IG0 homocides (13 more than 
he year beforo). Here is an example of the progress of moral and public order ! 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 17 

when dearly-bought justice- purchased is not then obtained, 
notwithstanding the painful sacrifice made?* 

In France, in England, in Spain it is certainly not cheap, but 
one can expect reasonably to obtain it. This is not the case in 
the Island. It is not so in the Island, we repeat 'it. Reform 
does not consist in diminishing the expenses of justice which 
would be indeed, desirable, but in the fact it may be secured. 
Nor can this be done, unless there be adopted a press law, clear 
and explicit, which will make effective the judicial responsibility, 
While these desired reforms are delayed, the prosperity of the 
Island Js retarded by the nullity of legal guaranty, by a want 
of reciprocal confidence in business affairs, by a timidity of 
capital and its consequent scarcity, because the lender knows 
that he must take into account the danger of loss, and so 
varies the rate of interest. Thus it is discovered that the great 
obstacle to the progress of a country is not the insalubrity 
of the soil, nor the heat of the climate, the insufficiency of the 
roads, snd their little security, but consists in the want of legal 
guarantees which every man sesks for his liberty, his life and 
property. 

It is clear that the absence of legal guarantees conduces to 
the taking of arbitrary means of order and security in order to 
supply them, whence springs the continual intervention of the 
authorities in the domain of the tribunal, and the shipping 
away en masse of the people, which policy Tacon, O'Donnell, 
and Lersemdi thought themselves obliged to recur to. 

Without desiring to go back further than O'Donnell s time, 
let it be said, that he, desiring to purge the Island of vagabonds 
adopted the idea of colonizing a desert isle, to favor the estab- 
lishment of an industrial association, and to enrich, at the same 
time, his pocket. " A company," says M. de Harponville, " wag 
formed to exploit the Isle of Pines, which is situated to the 
south of Cuba."f 

This company was not slow in making money, but it owed 
this to the immoral and efficacious protection which the Captain 
General lent to it. 

*Inforrue fiscal of Dr. V. Vazquez Quipo. Madrid, 1845. 
t La Reine dea Antilles, pp. 124. 



18 CUBA. UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

The slave trade which he protected, or, at any rate, tolerated, 
inspired him with the idea of making white slaves, and, protected 
by the omnipotence and want of responsibility of his govern- 
ment, he did not fear to order to forced labor in the mines free 
white men. This order fell upon the people of the towns, and, 
above all, in the country, without questions being asked, or con- 
demnations having been made. The pretext was that these men 
were vagabonds and of bad habits. The company made a pres- 
ent to his Excellency and to his wife of 200 shares, and while 
the Governor-General was enriching himself the sycophants, who 
held the carte blanche to gather up men, made certain pretended 
vagabonds pay very dearly for their exemptions, some of whom 
were compelled to pay for their release as much as their weight 
in gold ! 

General Lersemdi had recourse to the same heroic remedy, 
but he did not make any capital by it. He contented himself 
with taking from the Havana prisons those who had fallen, 
for the second time in crime, the incorrigibles, and those 
who were upon process for correction by the police, and whose 
causes had not been ended by the laborious Audiencia, and these 
were embarked for Fernando Po on the coast of Africa. As a 
means of security and of warning to those interested he caused 
a list to be made up of all those on the Island who lived without 
occupation of any kind, and who could not show some means of 
subsistence. 

If arbitrary methods had not always produced bad effects, 
we should not complain though the sword might be hurtful and 
of two edges. What a suitable pretex, so convenient to get rid of 
all independent characters who, exhibited any spirit toward the 
government ? Proceedings so expiditious might be deemed un- 
justifiable, even if supposed to be applied by perfect beings. 
But if the captain-general were so, does that follow that his 
subalterns are so too ? With the exception of a few old officers 
who are found in the body of police, it is a thing well-known 
that the men, who do the'seizing are the dregs of the population. 
This the frequent discharges from employment for prevarication 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 19 

and numerous examples, which might be cited, abundantly 
prove.* 

Justice only condemns to be sold those slaves sentenced whose 
masters are unwilling to pay the costs of the cause, doubtless, 
to the end that they may commit if they feel disposed, other 
crimes ! 

The governor has an established gambling house. This beavrs 
the pompous title of " Royal Lottery of the Ever Faithful Island 
of Cuba," which up to 1822, had already made for its owner, the 
(king), $5,865,625. Pezuela in his Dictionary calls the lottery, 
the branch of service especially working in the interests of the 
Treasury, with more certainty than any other for the sources 
of revenues." The Administration receives to itself as a 
product the one-fourth part of the capital to which the sum 
of the tickets amount. In 1864, 546,000 tickets were sold at the 
rate of $16 each, which made up the enormous amount of 
$8,736,000. When the taxes had been increased at the time of 
the crisis, the passion of all classes, including the slaves, was 
converted into a perfect furor. For this reason, the government 
drew, in addition to the eighteen ordinary lotteries, two other 
extraordinary, and of high-priced tickets, all without prejudice to 
the lottery at Madrid, whose billetes were also distributed 
throughout the island. The government does not .admit com- 
petitors. Nothing is more immoral than this official institution, 
which extracts all the gains of the poor, and diverts him from 
labor and honest earnings with the deceptive hope of a fortune 
acquired at a single stroke ! The desire of gaming i§ fostered 
by this means, and it becomes general; for, notwithstanding the 

*F. Dargo, Captain of partido of Jarrigua, says "El Oriental," of Hoguin has run 
away with the tax-money, (July, 1868). " In the night of June 1, 18s7, says El Boletin 
de Cardenas, some Chinamen led before the local authorities a white man tied, 
who had a knife (punal), saying that this man and a companion who made his 
escape *' tried to rob them. The prisoner was no other than a night-watch, and his 
companion had been discharged 15 days before because of his bad conduct." Do the 
police add themselvee to the number of thieves ? This would indicate a propensity for 
monopoly. 

f When a slave is apprehended for a great misdemeanor he is given over to justice 
because of the fear of expenses in defending him, which may be more than his value 
Whether guilty or no the expense must be paid, if absolved, immediately ; if con- 
demned, after his punishment has been expiated. 



20 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 



legal prohibition of private lotteries, and of gaming, each one 
has his own lottery under the special title of raffle." Men raffle 
off their horses or watches — the ladies their bracelets and 
dresses. 

Gaming penetrated formerly into the convents,* and in a nearer 
epoch (1858 to 1862), extended its green table as far as the pub- 
lic square of Santiago de Cuba on the feast days, paying for the 
privilege a tax to the City Council, which was for the benefit of 
works of public improvement. Gambling goes on in concealed 
places where people of importance do not feel ashamed to go. In 
the country the veguero bets away his crop of tobacco while 
growing, and the overseer of a farm gambles off at times his 
oxen, hard pressed as he may be to support his family. The 
police cannot prevent it. More disposed to annoy than to be 
vigilant in the cities, there is hardly any in the country, where 
each capitain del partido counts three or four guards on horse- 
back, and whose principal business is to carry abont the mails. 
The form stifles the essence, the letter kills the spirit that which 
is strictly insisted upon ; nothing beyond is deemed necessary. 

To save appearances — this is the essential, and to spend much 
for stamped paper, which is for the interests of the state. In a 
country which is one-fourth part as large in extent as Spain, and 
whose inhabitants do not number beyond 1,400,000 inhabitants, 
which is equivalent to 289 for each square league, the same 
police regulations are applied as in Spain. Not not only the 
rural police, and judicial proceedings are regulated in this man- 
ner, but all the branches of administration likewise. " The 
proof of the want of order in the government which we deplore 
is the immense number of rules and dispositions derogatory, in 
great part, the one of the other, in all matters of administration, 
and which no one, even those who are to administer them, 
knows. These dispositions, made by persons Avho are are con- 
stantly being relieved from duty, and who consequently cannot 
become familiar with the country that they go out to aid in rul- 
iug, cannot produce other effect than to place the government 
iu ridicule. As for example, the famous rural ordnances of 

* Statement of Gen. Tacon ou the state of the country after his arrival. 



infi 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 21 

1856, (afterwards amended), by which premiums were conceded 
for capturing wolves, foxes and other ferocious animals, when 
there were never such animals to be found in the country, but 
whose stuffed skins were occasionally to be met with in cabinets 
of natural history." (Information Sobre Reformas, New York, 
1867.; 

A Spanish writer, Alcala Galiano, in his book entitled, " Cuba 
in 1858," says, while criticising the mania for rules : " No one 
knows with exactitude that which has been ordered, nor that 
which has been put forth as an order, nor when nor how the 
order should be applied." All of us who have lived in Cuba are 
fully advised in this particular. Go into an office of the govern- 
ment upon any matters of business. " My friend, where is your 
petition?" is the first question asked. "But I come only to ask 
about a very simple thing. I only want a word with you." The 
reply is : " Put in your written application." On the following 
day the party comes in with a memorial on stamped paper, as a 
matter of course. " Well, come in day after to-morrow." That 
day arrives, but the business is not arraigned, and the further 
answer is given, " Come to-morrow morning." At last the mat- 
ter is favorably passed upon, but nothing has been really done. 
Should my adversary practice a little underhand managment, I 
am stopped. Certain gifts (moneys) serve as an additional com- 
pensation to subalterns badly paid, who serve as intermediaries 
between the petitioner and the Superior Authority. This is a 
compensation which makes up for the delays of payment of 
salaries, which at times are in retard a whole year, andsubject 
in critical times, (which frequently happen), to be paid with de- 
ductions. In truth, the state makes as much out of stamped 
paper as the employees out of their clients, 



IV. 



Let us now examine how the other branches of the State are 
directed, as public works ; public instruction ; worship, for this, 
unfortunately, belongs to the public service. 



22 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

Public works figure in the money statement for the fiscal year 
of 1866-1867, to the amount of $194,591, and the pay of the 
engineers charged with carrying them on foot up $106,249. Is 
the proportion strong enough ? It seems to me a labor well paid 
for. And then there are no roads in the country, except those 
constructed and kept up by the inhabitants. There is not a 
single port opened or prepared by the hand of man, not a river 
canalized, not a marsh drained. The bridges over the streams 
are such as they may be classed, neither good nor bad, and are 
so useless in time of great rains as that the mails are detained 
for da}- s, because there is no way of crossing them. There are 
not 150 miles of roads for wagons in a country whose superfice 
measures 3,604 square maritime leagues, and which pays 175,- 
000,000 fcs. ($35,000,000) of taxes. So transportation is carried 
on by mules, except in the Eastern Department, where there is 
a sufficiency of railways to answer the purposes of agriculture. 
But these railways are due only to the public spirit of the in- 
habitants and to private industry. There is a territory of 111 
square leagues, composed of the most beautiful country ever 
seen, and peopled by 33,673 inhabitants, which vegetates in 
misery by reason of a want of communications to pass out its 
products to market ; this is the Department of Bayamo. 

This section is watered by a majestic river, sixty leagues in 
length, and whose bottom is deep enough to permit the passage 
of the largest ship for twenty-two leagues distance. The Span- 
ish caravels of the first century following the conquest went up 
this stream to take on board wood, suitable for cabinet makers, 
and hides, which formed its only wealth. In 1816 a great flood 
bore along the trees that had been left cut upon its banks, and 
with them made a bar upon its mouth. This bar still exists, and 
will most probably remain there until the Americans go and 
open it to their profit. Until this takes place a district, most 
richly endowed by nature, will remain robbed of half its popu- 
lation, and only half way utilized. 

The bay of Nipe extends out into an area of 712 square leagues, 
deep up to its shores, easy of access and well protected. It is 
one of the most beautiful as well as the best bays in the 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 23 

world. Thanks to its position on the northern coast, and the. 
advantages before detailed, it could become one of the best 
markets in the Island. But now its fertile and smiling shores do 
not present to the sight of the admiring traveller other than a 
small cultivated district, which is called Mayari, and is situated 
on the river of that name. There is no road which leads out 
into the green belts surrounding it, and the port has not been 
habilitated. What does this barbarous world signify ? That 
it is closed to commerce. 

And what of popular education ! It hardly exists in the 
country and in the towns. To open schools for the free colored 
imposes heavy sacrifices. These schools which the Councils 
furnish, and whose expenses they propose to defray, derive much 
more money from associations of beneficence, called Sociedades 
Economicas de Amigos del Pais. The proportion of persons who 
can read, excepting the slaves, is greater in Cuba than in the 
provinces of the Peninsula Iberica. (Informacin sobre Reformas). 
And in what respect does the government lends its aid ? In no 
wise. It simply favors it with Platonic stimulants, and as the 
Councils have been shorn of the greater part of their resources 
by the decree of the 12th of February, 1867, the greater part of 
the schools are going to be closed for want of teachers. In ef- 
fect these as well as the professors in the institutes of the second 
class schools have had no money, it is now 18 months, and the 
Diario da Cuba of the 18th of March, written under the eye of 
the censor, represents them as without shoes or clothing, dead of 
hunger, annoyed by implacable creditors, and obliged to look to 
other resources for an honorable means of living. "Would it not 
be supposed from this, that the government is negligent in the 
matter of literature ? I refer to the testimony of a respectable 
member of the city council of Guantanamo, who lately said to 
me : " Our municipality received, it is now two years, an official 
communication from the governor of this department," the tenor 
of which was : The Most Excellent Senor Governor Superior 
Civil, recommends to all the councils the purchase of the im- 
portant work of Dr. Lanuela, because of its practical utility in 
the country, for the practice of medicine in private families. 



2i CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

The consequence is, that the city council of Guantanamo ought 
*to subscribe for r respectable number of copies for distribution 
among the laboring men. The Governor of the Eatern Depart- 
ment, Juan Jose del Yillar." The cost was $200. The same 
recommendation was repeated with referrence to the " magnifi- 
cent work of Dr. Villalon " on Agriculture. 

Moreover, what is that which the state favors ? The religion, 
Catholic, apostolic, Romanic, without doubt ? Yes, not that she 
ruins herself in founding parishes, for the country needs both 
churches and pastors, nor in disseminating religious instruction 
among the masses. Certain good regulations have been pub- 
lished, which are not, however, observed. A few Draconian laws 
which are, happily, not regarded- at all. Good examples are 
given by paying profusely the high dignitaries of the church. 
For example, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba 
has an income of $18,000 per annum, which he duplicates by 
subventions — total, $36,000. Poor man! The individual of 
whom we speak is the Most Excellent, Illustrious, and Most 
Reverend Senor Doctor Don Such-an-one, most worthy Arch- 
bishop of this Diocese. And now, having heard all these titles 
pronounced, does it not seem that he is indeed well paid ? The 
salary of the Bishop of Havana is, however, larger. The Vicars 
General, the Canons, the Prebendanies, are paid in proportion. 
As to the smaller clergy, evangelical poverty is its patrimony, a 
a little more or less everywhere. 

We have said that the government gives a good example. 
This is a matter of justice due it to say. Every traveler who 
passes through Cuba on St. James' day, can see the patron of 
Spain, with cap and sword, mounted on horseback, passing 
through the streets, followed by a brilliant cortege, in which 
figure all the authorities, civil, religious, and military. In the 
same way, on Holy Friday, the Captain-General, at Havana, and 
his representatives in the other points of the isle, make it a duty 
to follow the image of the Mother of Sorrows, whose bosom is 

* Nearly all the Corporations have titles ; The City Council of Havana is Most Excellent 
Besides those of the large towns are called Most Illustrious, while Illustrious is applied 
to the Councils of the smaller places. If Spain docs draw a sufficient sum of money, 
Bhe gives back at least a good number of titles. 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 25 

pierced by a sword. These go in procession, heads uncovered, 
and tapers in hand. On the week of Pentecost, we have seen 
the troops conducted, for four consecutive days, to mass, the first 
three being in honor of the Holy Spirit, and the last for Saint 
Anthony, of Padua. A third part of the year is made up of 
fete days, whose observance is prescribed by the civil law ; and, 
as the church does not grant enough, to these have been added 
numerous political holidays. In the last monarchy, there were 
six of these : two in honor of " our bounteous Queen," two for 
the King, and two for the Heir Presumptive. The negroes have 
their fete days likewise ; among these are numbered that of St. 
Christina. The country not only loses the money that would 
have been made by labor on these feast days, but spends, besides, 
a great deal of means already accumulated." We are ruined by 
the holidays — one injures the other, and the priest of some new 
saint adds forever more to his cash-box.* 

Besides, the government occupies itself in avoiding the poison 
of heresy, the proof which is to be found in Article 1st of the 
royal order of 1817, always in full force. Strangers, subjects of 
foreign nations, who come to establish themselves in the Island 
of Cuba, should swear that they profess the religion, Catholic, 
Apostolic and Roman, and without this indispensable condition 
they will not be permitted to domicil themselves, f 

The rules of governacion and police say in the first article: 
" Sundays and days of precept will be observed, as prescribed 
by our Holy Mother Church," and in the second article ; When 
the Yiaticum or Host is met in the streets every one should get 
down upon his knees, and those on horseback and in carriages 
should descend in order that they may do the same." 

* On the 10th day of June, 1868, " El Redactor," the periodical official of the East- 
ern Department, distributed an extra, divided into two columns. In the first, there 
were the words : " Official.— The procession of the most holy Corpus Christ', suspended 
because'of bad weather, will take place on to morrow, Sunday, the 14th, at 8 o'clock in 
the morning." In the second, there was this announcement : " Royal Lottery of the 
Ever Faithful Island of Cuba. The largest premiums." (Here follows the hat of the 
premiums.) 

t Or swear that within two years they will become Catholics. Note of translator. 



26 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 



V. 



The government protects, likewise, commerce, but in the in- 
terests of Spain, though without much benefit, as the letter of 
General Dulce, written to the Minister of the Colonies, in 1867, 
declares : " The cause of trouble and of the inqiiietude which 
oppresses the Island of Cuba should be sought for to a great 
extent in the tariff laws, which, under pretext of protection, 
make impossible a commerce carried on in good faith, render 
sluggish commercial and maritime movements, foster fraud, as 
well as make impossible a legitimate commerce, under which said 
aspects both national and colonial interests suffer. The custom- 
house system is very expensive, overloaded with formalities 
which do not impede fraud, but which embarrass and annoy 
honest trade. The ordonnance of matriculas, in lieu of protect- 
ing industry upon the seas, has well nigh destroyed it, and in 
an Island where the multitude and excellency of its ports are 
well known, there are to be found numerous keys on the coast 
which afford large facilities for coasting and fisheries." 

Notwithstanding the number and excellence of its ports, of 
which General Dulc speaks, only fifteen are used for commer- 
cial purposes on a coast of 560 leagues in extent. Wherefore ? 
Because the others are not opened. 

Spain has reserved the monopoly of flour in Cuba to the far- 
mers of Castile by the aid of an enormous differential duty. 
From this it results that bread, aliment of the first necessity 
among every civilized people, and especially those of the Latin 
race, has been converted into a luxury, and is placed beyond 
the reach of the poor ; for a pound of bread is sold at about 
twelve pence. The population of the Island in round numbers 
is about 1,400,000 souls ; the consumption of flour annually is 
75,000,000 lbs., according to the last statistics. The result is 
that each inhabitant consumes 53 lbs. 9 oz. the year, while in 
Spain the consumption is 400 lbs. for each individual. Here is 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 27 

a people condemned to live without bread for the greater benefit 
of the agriculturists of Castile. If the disposition should be felt 
to make the most of this monopoly, yet whole years pass occa- 
sionally as in the last, in which there is found to be more 
money gained by consuming the flour in Spain or in sending it 
off to the rest of Europe, and not sending any to Cuba ; there 
resulting in this way a protection which has nothing to pro- 
tect, and a monopoly which has nothing upon which to use 
its power. As to the United States Cuba cannot ask of them 
provisions, for since 1844, by way of reprisals for the excessive 
duties levied by Spain, the Union determined : 1st. That every 
Spanish ship which comes to the United States shall give bond 
in double the amount of the cargo taken on board. 2nd. That 
vessels coming from Cuba, over and above the differential duties 
common to the flags of all nations, shall pay an additional duty 
equivalent to the duty imposed in Cuba between the national 
and American flags. 

If at any time the Castilians send their flour to Cuba, where a 
similar foreign product pays a differatial duty of $3 20 per 
barrel of 200 lbs. in exchange, they do not receive our products 
except by the payment of an enormous tax for the privilege of 
entry, which in 1863, amounted for the Island of Cuba and Porto 
Bico, so high as 208,257,339 reals vellon, say : $10,412,866 91. 
The duties of entry are so high, that only sugars of a superior 
quality can be imported into Spain, for no one thinks of intro_ 
ducing the- inferior qualities, their selling price being only the 
one half, they are made to pay the same duty. The truth is, 
that these enter the Peninsula by way of France and Germany 
after being refined in those countries. Thus it is understood in 
Spain how protection is given to its sugar refineries. 

The result is that whileSpain through her colonies is the great- 
estproducer of sugars, she is the smallest consumer of them, ac- 
cording to the statistics found in the Diccoinary of Commerce and 
Navigation, which gives the consumption of sugars for each in- 
habitant in the different countries during the period of 1856 to 
1859. She figares in the last rank even after the Roman States 
and the Government of Naples, at the rate of 760 grammes for 



28 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

each inhabitant, while England figures in the list at the rate of 
15 kilogrammes, 136 grammes. If Spain would deign to lower 
her tarriffs, Cuba would sell her sugars, because there would 
then be more demand, and it is even probable that the govern- 
ment would gain by the operation. That which has been said 
with respect to sugars can be repeated as to coffee and cocoa ; 
as to tobacco, it follows that the Island has to struggle with the 
State monopoly. Thus we see the proportion in which the 
tobacco of Culia is used in Spain compared with that which is 
received from other countries. For the year 1862 and in the 
first six months of 1863, there entered for consumption according 
to an official statement : Tobacco from Cuba, 5,105,664 lbs., 
Phillipines, 5,286,876 lbs., from foreign countries, 27,215,606 lbs. ; 
that is to say, 73° of tobacco from other countries against 27° 
raised in its own colonies. In this manner the Spaniards are 
condemned by the fisc to use a tobacco of inferior quality when 
they have colonies which produce the finest tobacco in the 
world. What do we see in all this ? That the ships of Bremen 
and Hamburg come to Cuba for the purpose of loading tobacco 
in leaf, which is to be worked up abroad, and afterwards to be 
sold in the United States and Europe as Havana tobacco. 

The government has other means of favoring maratime com- 
merce : for example, by obliging coasting steamers to transport 
i bs employees, its soldiers and effects, upon the presentation of 
an order from the treasury, which will pay when it can. Since 
the war, this protection has increased. This caused ships to be 
presented to the government, which are afterwards armed, or, 
ct least are diverted from their regular course of service in order 
that troops may be transported, cannons, animations of war, and 
these are paid for by a letter rendering thanks to the proprietor 
for the grain! tons service he has rendered the state. The mer- 
chant who receives this attentive recognition, proposes to him- 
self, though it may be somewhat late to do so, that he will not 
again be thus used ; but in fifteen days the same request is 
made, and this is always followed by a prompt obedience — in 
spite of all reclamations. Lucky is, indeed, the party fitting 
out if, by reason of dullness, his vessel be not sunk, as was the 
case with the " El Cobrero." 



V 



CUBA UNDEE SPANISH KULE. 29 

I reserve space within which to speak of the gavel duties, and 
the exactions without number which weigh upon the country. 
Here I will not cite more than one in which commerce suffers 
particularly. Every letter which the French and English steamers 
bring, though paid abroad, pays here lfc — 25c, and those coming 
from the United States, 12Ac* The journals and pamphlets pay 
more still, in proportion, and are calculated arbitrarily, accord- 
ing as they may come by the mail from Havana or Santiago de 
Cuba. The amount varies, even to doubling itself, but is never 
less than 1 real fuerte, 63 centimes of a franc f'l'2i| cents.) And 
you need not suppose that the letters and papers are going to be 
carried to your residence. It is necessary to go and ask for 
them at the post-office ; and, if not, an additional 12 centimes 
( 12.^ cents) is to be paid to the carrier. In vain has commercial 
men cried out against this gavel tax, which is onerous all the 
year round. Never has the slightest concession been obtained. 
Spain has taken care while celebrating postal treaties with 
France, to exclude her colonies from their benefits ; and she is 
surprised that these colonies now would like to get rid of the 
union ! Add to all these things, so agreeable as they are, the 
most detestible of mony systems which, because of an exact re- 
lation between silver and gold, maizes us pay more dearly and 
sell at cheaper rates in our negotiations abroad and with Spain. 
This phenomenon is due to the fact, that an imaginative value 
is given to gold of Q\ per cent more than its actual weight — the 
object being solely, it is said, to keep it in the country. This is 
achieved, in fact, but the same process carries off all the sil- 
ver. 

The administration, desiring to remedy this evil, increased the 
value of fractional money fl827 to 1840 j to 25 per cent. Silver 
ran as a sheep, while the gold new away. 

Twenty cent pieces were again brought down to their true 
value ; but as gold values were unchanged, silver went down the 
same track by which it had come up. and it became necessary 
to have recourse to foreign moneys (silver), which, fixed at a rate 
lower than was the Spanish value, lost nothing by entering into 

* Even more is paid. Letters which come from Jamaica and Mexico, pay 2fc. — 5c0. 



30 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

relations with over-valued gold. American money arrived, but 
not in a sufficient quantity ; and hence a stimulus was given to 
French franc pieces (20 cents,), and the five cent American pieces 
were received at par- — that is to say, for five cents — and these 
were introduced into commerce with a real French vivacity. 
Commerce manifested a disquietude at this overloading specula- 
tion, and refused to receive the 20 centime pieces, except at one- 
half of what they had been taken. There was a crisis in the 
bodegas (provision stores), and among the lower people. Now, 
the authorities intervened, saying, " Restless as is the most Ex- 
cellent Captain-General and Governor Superior Civil for the 
wellbeing of the people, he has decided that the 20 centime 
pieces of French money shall continue to pass for 5 cents in the 
smaller classes of commerce." The merchants rose against this 
order of the Captain-Ganeral, who, ever indefatigable and never 
erring, launched forth another decree, reducing the value of the 
piece to 4 cents. But the panic had commenced, and no one was 
willing to take it at this price. The Head Authority, surprised 
because of his not being able to control the money market as a 
camp, reiterated the orders, supporting them by heavy fines and 
imprisonment. He did not succeed in this, and the speculation 
was charged with shipping these moneys back the way whence 
they had come. 



VI. 

" Agriculture is the stomach of States," said Sully. Let us 
see how Spain treats this organ. The isle of Cuba counts 831,281 
freemen and slaves devoted to agricultural labors — that is to 
say of the three-fouiths parts of the fixed population, and pays 
consequently, the three-fourth part of the taxes. These ascended 
in 1867 to $32,882,253, according to the last statistics. The net 
product of rural property amounted to $38,032,502, which, in 
proportion to the three-fourth part of the tax, pays, consequently, 
$24,661,639. Add to this the fact that the tax is paid nearly 



* Decree 27th August, 1868. 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 31 

always by anticipation, and agriculture, it will be seen, pays not 
exactly upon the taxes, but upon the expectation of the tales. 
Hence, the necessity of asking a loan, of making a contract of 
refaccion, which is the same thing ; a necessity so much the 
more prejudicial, as the interest of the money is superior to that 
which the lands produce. That precious territory, known to the 
smokers of the whole world, and which possesses many natural 
ports whence all its products might be commodiously shipped, is 
obliged to transport them by means of mules, tracing routes 
which have no name, and rivers, even, up to the opened port. 
This is not all. Commerce of importation and exportation can 
not be carried on in the same territory, and the vegueros find 
themselves compelled, in order to have objects of prime neces- 
sity, to submit to the law of the laboring popula- 
tion, which provides a credit based upon the next 
crop, and obtains for them money upon the same guar- 
antees at an usurious rate, as high as from eighteen to twenty- 
four percent. " The truth is, and is important to be known," say 
the delegates to Madrid in 1866, " that the principal Cuban pro- 
duct, sugar, causes at present a loss to those who devote their 
time and capital to it. The proprietors of estates are nothing 
more than simple administrators of property, the products of 
which are absorbed by taxes and usury. Let the mortgage 
offices be examined, and we shall see the different failures 
which daily occur." In an extensive and judicious report pre- 
sented to the Captain-General by Don Juan Poey, one of the 
largest proprietors in the Island, it has been demonstrated from 
the best ascertained facts, that, taking into account the total 
production of sugar in the country, there is an annual loss of 
$1,340,117, which is divided among the 1,365 sugar estates, 
or 487-1000 per cent, on the capital employed, and this interest 
without taking into account the cost of insuring the machinery, 
houses, &c, the epidemics to which the negroes are subject as 
well as animals, nor the deterioration of capital employed on the 
lands, the establishments and machinery. If we pass over from 
sugar to tobacco, whose cultivation is in the second degree the 
nerve of our agriculture, and the base of a very rich export, we 



32 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

see with alarm and pain that it moves off to other districts. . . . 
Coffee, a principal source of abundant and valuable commerce in 
a day not far behind us, succumbed at last to the blows of our 
economical and tax-gathering legislation, so much so as that 
the question is now being raised whether there shall be enough 
made for our own consumption. And thus disconsolate, let us 
cut off from view this decadence of our richest agricultural in- 
dustries in order to fix it upon those more modest, though not 
less important ones which give life and occupation to the most 
rural of our population, where poverty, frequently misery, with 
all its suite of ills annexed presents itself to us in all its hor- 
rible nakedness. Thus we shall be convinced that there exists 
a profound disturbance, in all the elements that go to make up the 
country wealth of Cuba, much stronger than the efforts of 
science or the will of those who till the soil, and which cannot 
be remedied by more hands, with which it is pretended to com- 
bat it. (Informacion sobre Reformas). What, then, are the dis- 
turbing elements that cause these evils ? Before all others, 
slavery ! A short calculation is sufficient to demonstrate that 
the production of slave, is dearer than that of, fr.ee labor. 

Let us suppose an estate which needs 300 hands ; if the work 
be done by free labor, calculating the price at half a dollar per 
day for each hand, and fixing the number of work days at 250 
during the year, which is the largest number employed in agri- 
cultural labor, the proprietors will have to pa} r out $37,500. 
But the Cuban estate owners, in order to have 300 day laborers 
must employ at least 350 slaves, for from this number a deduction 
must be made for the old, infirm and children. These slaves a^ 
the moderate price of $500 each, represent a capital of $175,000 ; 
they must bo lodged, fed, taken care of, clothed and even bap- 
tized and buried, that which cannot be done except at an outlay 
of money ; so that, even supposing the expenses of keeping 
them is equal to the one half of the free laborers, who cannot 
cost less than $31,937 to the proprietor at the end of 365 days, 
which sum added to the interest of $17,000 at 10 per cent., makes 
$49,437", the result is $11,397 more than in the first case sup- 

* The interest is supposed to be 10 per cent., but the common rate is 12 per cent. 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 33 

posed, and which did not involve the necessity of employing a 
capital of $175,000. 

In the first case the sugar planter does not need more than 
$37,500 for carrying on his establishment ; in the second he 
needs $175,000+$31,937=206,000. The consequence of this excess 
of capital in the production is to make it exceedingly costly and 
possible only when products of great value, such as sugars, cof- 
fee, and tobacco are to be raised ; and even then their price in 
the market are such as that they are in a poor condition to meet 
the same sorts of products coming from other countries. To 
these evils, which harrass agriculture, there is to be added 
the excessive cost of articles of consumption and handicraft 
(provisions, sausages, clothing, instruments, &c.) which come 
from abroad, and are taxed when imported by a heavy duty at 
the custom-house and a direct tax likewise, at 14 per cent. ; so 
that the production is found to fall in exceptional conditions, 
and the producers in the road to bankrutcy. 

It is not alone by reason of the great amount of capital em- 
ployed that the cost of production is increased ; it is by reason 
of the inferiority of slave labor. Senor Poey, planting himself 
upon the official statistics, has demonstrated that with a mid- 
dling force of 145 laborers, an estate makes 1887 boxes of mid- 
dling product whilst the experiences and example of foreirrn 
colonies show that 64 laborers aged from 10 to 60 years, are suf- 
ficient to the production. From which there results are an 
excess ot 71 laborers, who at a valuation of $800 each, the 
mean price of an adult slave, necessiates the employment of an 
unproductive capital of $56,800 on each estate. The inferiority of 
servile labor results from ignorance, from the want of enterprise 
and the absence of emulation on the part of the laborers, and 
those defects, in their turn, throw their influence back upon the 
proprietor, keeping him in the same routine and hindering ag- 
ricultural progress in which there must be some intelligence with 
the laborer. So it happens that there is not to be seen in 
Cuba none of those new industrial proceedings of which the 
Americans make such admirable use, and which are adapted to 
all kinds of farm labor from the rude work of felling timber to 



34 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

the delicate process of sowing seed, of the cultivation, and in 
gathering of the crop. There are no sawing machines to cut up 
the giants of the forest, no apparatus to draw up the roots from 
the earth, no steam machines, no plows to break up the virgin 
soil; no machines to'sow or to plant, no scythes to cut the cane as 
is done by wheat and hay. All this is done by muscular force, 
with instruments of the most primitive kind. This requires 
more men and animals, and, as a matter of course more capital 
with less product. The scanty profit of slave labor, united to 
the cheapnes and abundance of land, has conduced to a system 
of cultivation in which there is asked from the soil that which 
cannot be exacted from imperfect labor. For this reason 
we see agriculture obliged to seek new land, because of the 
sterility which comes upon those already opened by reason of 
ignorance, thus abandoning considerable capital and leaving 
behind devastation and desert places. The cultivation looses 
in intensity what it gains in extensiveness. According to Don 
Juan Poey, the mean extent of the estate is equal to42^* 
caballerias of land, the value of which does not fall below $63,- 
510, and which ought to render a product of 2,109 arrobas per 
each cabattaria, notwithstanding in Jamaica and Bengal a sugar 
estate, mean rendering is estimated at 5,755 alrrobas, in the 
Reunion 7,425 arrobas ; in Barbadoes and in English Guiana, 
9,609 arrobas. " Undoubtedly," remarks he, " none of the colo- 
nies have better lands than Cuba, but free labor, which has 
taken place of slave labor, permits a use of means more perfect. 
If the cultivation of the cane had been so far advanced as in 
Barbae: oes and Guiana, 9,29-00 caballarias of land would give 
the same amount of sugar as the 42£ caballarias before mentioned, 
and in the installation of this estate of 9,29-00 callebrias there 
would be saved $44,575, the interest of which at the lowest rate, 
9 per cent., would have a tendency to reduce the general ex- 
penses." 

The remedy, one would say, is easy : " Give liberty to the 
slaves, and call them freemen." That is just what is desired by 
the intelligent men of the country; that is what was vainly de- 

* The cnballo-ia is equal to 3 hectares, 42 areas, about 33£ acres. La ctrrdbais.— 25 lbs. 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 35 

mandecl by the delegates of Cuba and Porto Rico, at Madrid, in 
in 1866. By a Michaelivan policy, Spain is forced to preserve 
slavery", that she may oppose the brutal elements of the negro 
race to the legitimate aspirations of the white race. This is 
what the profound statesmen of Spain have honored with the 
expression — equilibrium of the races in the island of Cuba. We 
give place to the statement of the representatives of Cuba to 
the government in 1866, to the end that the reader may see on 
which side is the wrong, and where should rest, according to 
impartial history, the opprobrium of preserving slavery up to 
this good day. 

" We protest," said they, " in the most solemn manner against 
the theory of a commission of government, which, up to yester- 
day even, had not indicated the equilibrium of the races in Cuba 
as a means of order and conservatism, thus giving a sad proof 
of its political designs, and of its love for civilization ! If we 
be told that only the black and yellow races are capacitated by 
nature for agricultural labor in a tropical climate — that the seve- 
rity of this labor and the rigors of that climate, as well as its 
moderate cost, will be always a powerful obstacle to white emi- 
gration, we reply : This argument is not new. It has been 
made from the time of the conquest, and has ever had a support 
in the ignorance and avarice, which brought about the slave 
trade as well as slavery." 

Not to speak of the great number of agents, of engineers, of 
employeees, European an American in origin, and who are en- 
gaged upon the ingeuos, the labor on ports, streets, quarries and 
railroads is done almost wholly by white labor. 

More than this ; not only a great number of emigrants prefer 
agriculture on a small scale and for their own proper account as 
the Vizcainos and Gallegos, but there is a great number of em- 
ployes, upon salaries, in the great fabrics considered, up to the 
present, as worked by negroes and Chinese. The official 
statistics number 41,621 whites employed on estates. Don Juan 
Poey, upon the authority of figures furnished by Dr. Ajtenor 
Betancourt, Begiclor de Holquin, tells us that in 1861 there 
were in that jurisdiction three small estates worked exclusively 



SC CUBA UNDER SPANISH KULE. 

by whites, «nd there are now in the Island 200 small farms on 
which canes are grown anil sugar made. In Cuba the statistics 
prove that of the 793,484 whites (1861) 454,507 were devoted to 
agriculture. This demonstrates, likewise, that of the total of 
the agricultural population, being 853,242, 53} per cent, is white, 
12^ per cent, free colored, and 34 \ are slaves; proportions which 
are fruitful of reflection. 

The progressive increase of the white population in the Island 
which has mounted since 1705 from 86,440 to 793,484 — does it 
not prove the emptiness of the statement that the climate hinders 
emigration and the increase of the white race? What would be 
the consequence, if instead of being impeded, emigration were 
fostered and stimulated ? Why is it not larger? Because the 
laborers find their places occupied by the negroes and Chinese ; 
because of the gloom inseparable from the system of slavery 
which degrades and renders vile all labor, dispenses with in- 
telligence and suppresses the free will of the laborer, rendering 
him a docile and inert instrument of the will of another, inagu- 
rating thus in Cuba a brutal and destructive system of agricul- 
ture, which, at the same time, that it wastes the soil, ruins the 
generations of laborers, sacrificing unnumbered victims to its 
avarice. In vain would it be to counsel the Cubans to reform 
their agriculture, as though it were not necessary to make a 
change in order to avoid henceforth a heap of obstacles foreign 
to science and the art of agriculture, and independent of its 
action and will. As if agriculture did not have a foundation in 
the very vitals of that society in which it was cradled, and as 
if it were thrown out of accord with the institutions which 
direct it. 

Agriculture, the object of which is the production of riches — 
can it get along without roads, rivers, and maritime communica- 
tions, is it independent of the market situation, of commercial 
treaties, of the regimen of the custom-house, of the credit sys- 
tem, of the security of things and persons, of the administration 
of justice, of municipal management, as well as of provincial, 
of public instruction, in a word, of all the elements which com- 
bine to form the government of a society ? To pretend to better 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 37 

or to transform agriculture in the midst of immutable exterior 
conditions, of sedentary institutions, of elements economo-poli- 
tical which do not favor it, is to betray aa ignorance of its 
nature and its laws. 

To transform of itself a system of agriculture, which to-day 
owes its deplorable condition (as we have explained) to these 
same causes, and to the mode of governing, which has brought 
it about, overwhelmed by a mortgage debt, which represents 
nearly the whole of its fixed capital, and the interest on which 
absorbs the greater part of the current production ! . . . . to 
transform itself, in spite of a concurrence of exterior causes, of 
the most active kind, punished in its better markets by the sys- 
tem of reprisals originating out of our hard customs' tariffs ; 
forced to sell at the lowest prices, to the end that articles of its 
own consumption and elaboration may be purchased at an extra 

price of at least 30 per cent to transform it, when guar- 

entees and security in the interior are wanting, without streets 
and neighborhood roads, without institutes of learning of a 
primary class or schools wherein it may be taught, subject as 
they are to the abuses and arbitrary conduct of the lesser au- 
thorities and its moral agents. .... which pays more than 75 
per cent of the enormous tax of $32,852,223, to which is 
to be addeed nearly 18 per cent on the crude, and of 48 per cent 
on the net product." . . . transform it, no ; to transform it would 
be to ruin it completely, because there would be nothing left ; it 
would not tend to put it in a condition to undertake the bettering 
of it in the way which science indicates. 

To this end, nothing resembling the slave trade, nor the intro- 
duction of Chinese, which is a masked slave trade, is worth any- 
thing. That which is necessary is the suppression of embarass- 
ments in the custom house ; the abolition of injustice in the pub- 
lic administration, as well as its reparation ; a politic as well as 
economical legislation, which would diminish our expenses of 
production, increase the number of our markets, and raise the 
price of our products. Thus will an agricultural transformation 
be obtained of itself, for the improvements and guarantees which 
flow from such a system, would give to agriculture the means of 



38 CUBA UNDER 8PANISH RULE. 

buying new instruments, to increase the pay of dependents, to 
adopt new methods, — in a word, to bring about all those condi- 
tions within which all kinds of labor would be multiplied. 

J ' Let Spain bring about, in fine, (for her honor and our good,) 
the abolition of slavery, without a compromise of material inte- 
rests, or a violation of any acquired right — that is to say, by pro- 
gressive emancipation, and within a fixed time. This would be 
the best stimulus for the emigration of the white race." Infor- 
mation Sobre Reformas en Cuba y Porto Rico. Such were the just 
demands of the representatives of Cuba and Porto Rico. But 
the Spanish government was but little, disposed to condescend 
to grant that which was asked for by the inhabitants of the An- 
tilles. 

In the meeting which took place on the 6th of December, 
1866, between the delegates of the Antilles and the government 
commissioners, Senor Angulo, a representative from the city of 
Mantanzas, made a motion to declare the slave trade piracy, 
with all the consequences resulting therefrom. Senor San Mar- 
tin, a representative from Havana, said on this occasion, " that 
it was necessary to Spanish honor that the trade should be de- 
clared piracy, — that the monarchy had lost its presitige before 
the nations of Europe, that we had been lying in the face of the 
world, and that it was proper to confess with shame that the 
treaty had been carried on solely because of the tolerance of 
the government." 

The motion was voted by the majority, only three members 
being opposed to it, of whom one was a senator, another a priest, 
who excused himself by saying that his sacred office impeded the 
giving of his approbation to a means which involved the death 
penalty ; the other was an old minister of colonial affairs, who 
opposed the measure frankly. All the three were elected by the 
government, and commissioned by it to treat of colonial reforms 
in connection with those chosen by popular suffrage. 

The committee named in consequence to take into considera- 
tion this motion, truly exposed the situation by saying, " It is 
sufficient that a capiain del partido is willing to let an expedition 
be landed, to have the thing done. How, in effect, can this 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 39 

officer resist him who says : ' Take ten, fifteen or thirty thousand 
dollars without receipt, silent and unobserved, which you may 
keep for yourself. I only ask that on to-morrow morning, in- 
stead of being here, you maybe in some other part of your juris- 
diction ?' " The Lieutenant-Governors, likewise, wink at the 
landing of these expeditions, because there is considerable money 
to be made, and a sense of honor is not strqng enough to prevent 
their being seduced. The thing is to attain it in this case by the 
heroism of honor, and frankly as heroes are not common, and are 
exacting, however they may seem, (and particularly so to me, who 
look upon them as adventurers,) the true reason is reached which 
explains the constant permission accorded by the authorities to 
the landing of these negro expeditions ; and whatever means 
may be adopted, I believe will, in truth, continue to exist here- 
after. " Demoralization has reached the extreme point — that is> 
understandings and pre-ari\»ngements are had with respect to 
this kind of business, and it has even happened that the public 
functionaries and employees of the government — those charged 
with enforcing its orders and causing the laws to be respected, 
have worked zealously to the end that landings might be effected 
in their own jurisdictions, thus taking means to prove their own 
complicity in the matter, and getting a good reward as the price 
of their prevarication and dishoner." 

" To invent the theory of equilibrium of races — this sup- 
poses that the Spaniards born in Cuba .... were for the mere 
reason of having seen the light there, determined enemies of 
their fathers . . . whom it were not possible to restrain without 
pouring in a constant horde of people antagonistic and semi- 
savage." This doctrine having been made to embrace the slave- 
trade there was nothing to be done but to implore condescen- 
ion : the upraised head of slavery, in effect said that he was a 
bad Spaniard who aspired to hinder the prevention of the na- 
tional integrity by an equilibrium of races. 

A man generally esteemed, counsellor Antonio G. de Mendoza 
thought of forming an association somewhat like the temper- 
ance societies in form, in which men would give their word of 
honor not to buy negroes introduced into the Island of Cuba 
after the 19th of November, 1863. 



40 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

This project was authorized by General Dulce, but the Metro, 
politan government disapproved it and left it provisional, by 
putting the matter in the hands of the Superior Chief of the 
Island. Now returning to the committee, of which we speak, 
its labors were concluded by asking. 1st. That the trade should 
be declared piracy ; 2nd. That the purchasers of negroes, 
bozales or Africans, should be considered as accomplices in 
piracy ; That the anti-slave-society, the character of which was 
pacific and inoffensive, should command the approbation of the 
government. 

None of these conclusions were adopted, nor were the} r sub- 
mitted to the deliberation of the Cortes Constituyentes. It is not 
sufficient to assimilate the slave trade to piracy, it is necessary 
to wound it in the heart by abolishing slavery itself. Why was 
it that Spain for her own good, as well as oiirs, did not accept 
the plan of emancipation proposed, gradual in character, and 
which would have required 7 year's time for consummation ? 
This conceded $450 to the proprietor for each slave between the 
ages of seven and sixty years ; the indemnity to be paid by the 
Island, and without costing Spain a dollar, asking of her only 
a fair and equitable tariff of duties. It was calculated that 
the total subvention for the owners of slaves would amount to 
$50,000,000, which the Island would have paid in seven years, 
without even increasing the scale of taxes, and which would 
have been withdrawn from the articles now unjustly made to 
pay duties. This is precisely what Spain did not wish to do. 

Imagine all the infamy that the institution of slavery en- 
genders ! As in the shadow of the poisonous Manchinelle tree 
there grow and conceal themselves envenomed grasses, so the 
shadow of slavery has given birth to the bastard stem, called 
emancipation. This name is given to the negroes who come out 
in ships caught in Cuban waters since the international treaty 
was made with reference to the trade. The government seizes these 
and then delivers them up for a certein quantity of money, or hires 
them in a sum which varies more or less on according to the good 
will of the Captain-Generarls, and his particular friends, who 
become masters for the space of eight years. Those who 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 41 

are born of emancipated parents, before the latter shall have 
obtained their free papers, become slaves of the government 
for 25 years, at least such is the the law ; but in parctice the 
emancipados, as a general thing, wait al their lives for their free 
papers. 

In 1867 an order from Madrid was given that all the emanci- 
pados who had fulfilled the eight years should be set at liberty, 
unless they desired tor remain with their patrons ; but this order 
was delayed in the matter of being carried into execution. 

I saw in 1867, at Santiago de Cuba, one of these unhapy men, 
who wished to redeem himself as an ordinary slave at $700 or 
$800, accumulated by sweat and privations ; the authorities (as 
ball-players), terrified him a la pelota in order to fix his posi- 
tion, which they could not do, because the disposition as to freed - 
men was not applicable to an emaneipatdo. 

Public opinion is, that in all epochs, the governors and other 
high functionaries have enriched themselves with the hires of 
the emancipades, whose number the government at Madrid could 
never ascertain. " During my stay at Havana, says D'Har- 
ponville, pp. 279," the same wife of the Captain-General had for 
her earnings men of this class whom she hired out at $15 
and $16 per month." An author, already cited, Senor Galiano, 
who was for a long time director of the officious journal, the 
Diario de la Mamia, says in his book (Cuba in 1858). " With a 
little more condescension and flexibility in the back-bone, means 
of utitliy which I recognize though I do not practice, I could ve- 
getate in peace, and even make use of my dozen emancipados." 

But this is nothing in comparison with the criminal abuse 
which is dealt out by piecemeal with respect to the persons of 
these unfortunates. They are made to pass for dead by means 
of certificates of interment, easily obtained. Or, when a negro 
of the estate dies, the ewancipado is reported dead, to whom the 
name of the dead slave is given in the meantime. 

It is not so easy to play the same game with the Chinese ; but 
what shall we say of the Draconic regulations which control 
them ? The contract once terminated, they are obliged to enter 
into a new one or return to their country at their own cost, or 
to employ themselves on the public works. 



42 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

Is this not to condemn them to forced labor for their whole 
lives ? And this regulation does not authorize that theyshall be 
whipped with the thong of a whip, which is used upon the 
slaves, but with a club. 

If Spain desires the introduction of negroes and Chinese, she 
does not wish to introduce whites. The reason has been very 
clearly given by some of her statisticians. " Peninsular emigra- 
tion ought not to be encouraged ; because Spain needs hands, 
and that of foreigners should not be fostered, because Spain 
cannot bear the idea of losing her dominion in the Antilles." In 
this spirit was written the royal order of 1817, which governs in 
this particular up to the present. 

We well know the provisions of Article 1st. It is necessary 
that the party interested should be a Catholic. Conformably to 
Article 2d, the oath of fidelity is taken before the Governor, and 
that of vassalage also ! " Within five years," says Article 3d, 
" foreigners should be naturalized or leave the country. In this 
last case, they may take away their accumulations ; but conform- 
ably to Article 5th, they should abandon one-tenth of their ac- 
quisitions. The 18th Article says : "During the first five years 
these persons cannot carry on commerce, neither possess a shop, 
nor store, nor be captains of vessels ; but they may have an in- 
terest in a company or association of Spaniards." Article 22d 
has this : " It is declared that the duties under which the gov- 
ernment and fisc sequestrate'and take possession of the property 
of foreigners, a rule reserved in that which concerns travel- 
ers, shall never be applied to persons domiciled." Article 48th : 
' " Foreigners who have no letter of domicil will be compelled to 
leave the island in three months, under penalty of being tried 
and punished for disobedience to the law." 

Such is the by-law protecting foreign emigration. It is true 
that all its requirements are not enforced ; but this alone proves 
toleration on the part of the local authorities, and the central 
government does not omit to reproduce them in royal orders. 
It is not long since General Dulce made pretentions towards 
obliging foreigners, resident at Havana, more than five years, to 
go through the process of naturalization. When Spain cele- 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 43 

brates treaties with foreign nations, a provision is always insert- 
ed to the effect that her colonies are not to be included in their 
provisions. So declares the Royal Order of 25th of August, 
1846, another of 5th August, 1847, and, in fine, the international 
treaty with France, in 1862, as well by the cedula forderj of 
1817, as by all the dispositions posterior. Foreigners are sub- 
jected to all the inconveniences possible. But again ; should a 
foreigner become naturalized, does he acquire the favor of the 
administration ? 

A distinguished publicist, a worthy magistrate, known to the 
reader, Dr. Vincente Vazquez Quipo, will enlighten us as to this. 
According to him the founder of Cienfuegos, to-day one of the 
most flourishing towns in the Island, died in misery. He was a 
Frenchman, a naturalized Spaniard, who was called Don Louis 
Declouet, against whom the fisc brought ruinous suits. 

" Even though it were true," said the government attorney of 
the Royal Treasury, Vasquez Quipo, " that Declouet has real- 
ized more advantages than were embraced within the terms of 
the colonization contract entered into between him and the gov- 
ernment — has he appropriated the $130,000 of revenue which 
entered into the Royal Treasury during the past year, and the 
products, quadrupled at least, of the new colony, inuring to the 
benefit of the public wealth ? 

To obtain such results it would not be a good means to bring 
against the founders of colonies interminable and ruinous pro- 
cesses for each act done in virtue of the contract of colonization. 
The watchfulness of public employees is, indeed, noble ; but of 
a truth it has been indiscreet, and, above all, prejudicial to the 
public good. Hardly behind what is practiced in our mother 
country is this fiscal spirit, which has bargained with foreigners 
for the right of establishing themselves in business in the 
country, as well as the privilege of bringing here their capital. 
The supposition seems to be entertained that they come here to 
rob us, as though that which they leave in the matter of knowl- 
edge and industry does not avail much more. Who has gained 
more in the production of the colony — Fernandina, the Island, 
the public treasury, or Clouet ? Would that we had other such 



44 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

colonies ! but this is not to be looked for ; the example of the col- 
onization of Cienfuegos will prevent other speculators from 
giving their time to undertakings so full of risk as long as this 
fiscal spirit exists, wretched as it is, and which has prevailed 
for so long a time, and forms the base of all the political economy 
of our government." (Imforme fiscal sobre el fomento de pob- 
lacion blanca en la Isla de Cuba. Madrid, 1845.") 



VII. 



Let us see what an impost the Island of Cuba is taxed with 
for being so well governed. In 1847 she paid $13,000,000, of 
which the mother country appropriated $6,000,000. This trib- 
ute money is called by the damnable expression, un sobrante (a 
surplus). In 1857 she paid $17,960,000, of which $8,000,000 
was raised for Spain. In 1867, the $32,857,233 comprised the 
pension of Father Claret, which was at the rate of $32 per capita, 
while Spain only paid $7 per head. This progression would 
seem to indicate an increase of prosperity in the country, 
but this was not so. In 1857 there was more prosperity than 
in 1867, there being nearly the same population. In 1857 
Spain was at peace with the Sultan of Morocco, with the Em- 
peror of Cochin China, with the Presidents of Mexico, Peru, 
Chili, aud with all the generals of Santo Domingo. Between 
1857 and 1867 she had conquered the Moors, fought the Kh-Du 
in Cochin China, occupied for an instant Vera Cruz, bombarded 
Valparaiso, cannonaded Callao, and, in fine, had endavored to 
fasten herself upon Santo Domingo. The increase of taxes in 
the Island can thus be understood.* In 1868 the imports in 
Cuba were laid at $43,959,903, but for this time they could not 
be paid. 



* The economic year (Spanish), at least that which relates to the Cuban account, 
commences on the 1st of July, and ends on the 30th of June. Thus, when the year 
1868 is spoken of, the time between the 1st of July, 1867, and the 30th ,of June, 1868, in 
to be understood. About $30— a real is here five cents. 



CUBA UNDEB SPANISH BULE. 45 

This result and that which followed had been prognosticated 
sometime before the insurrection. " I foresee a catastrophe 
near at hand in case Spain presists in remaining deaf 
to the just reclamation of the Cubaus. Look at the old 
colonies of the American Continent ; all have ended in conquer- 
ing their independence. Let Spain not forget this lesson ; let 
the government be just to the colonies that remain. Thus, she 
will consolodate her dominion over people who aspire only to be 
good sons of a worthy mother, but who are not willing to live as 
slaves under the scepter of a tyrant." Don J. A. Saco, delegate 
from Santiago de Cuba to Madrid, 1866. 

The Marquis of O'Gavan, another Cuban, but who being a 
senator of the kingdom could not be suspected by the govern- 
ment, used the same language. " The provinces over the sea 
pay 618 reals for each free inhabitant, while those of the Penin- 
sula do not contribute more than 140. The disproportion will 
be much greater now under the new tributary system imposed 
upon the Antilles, and had it notbeenf or a mistake in the calcu- 
lations, the increase would have been $11,000,000. When the affair 
touches a country overwhelmed with numerous charges which 
do not appertain to it but to the nation, as for example, the tax 
for Fernando Po, when by the Mexican and Santo Domingo ex- 
peditions, the money (cash) of the bank (capital and deposits* 
were absorbed and Cuba suffered from this fearful crisis which 
has mortally injured her credit, it is certainly not the mode to 
heal up her wounds by opening others." (Informancom solbe re- 
formas). All the members of the committee exclaimed with a 
single voice. " A radical reform in the tributary system is so 
much the more necessary and urgent when the elevation of im- 
posts has reached a point that cannot be bourne, because they 
wastes the element of wealth in those beautiful countries." The 
committee demonstrated by a table drawn up and explanatory 
of the matter, that the tax for the economic year of '66 -'o7 ex- 
ceeded the former one, by $14,780,150. If this proconsular im- 
posts had been properly and economically distributed only one 
half of the evil would have been done, but it was not so. For 
example, the custom-houses, for reasons inherent in the social 



46 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

Organization of the country and because of the conniption of their 
employees, presented a schedule of duties so heavy as that it 
was found necessary either to modify them to a very great ex- 
tent, or to substitute another in lieu of it. In a country with- 
out industry as Cuba, and whicn pays almost the whole of the 
customs, a country of slaves — there is a very small number of 
proprietors who support all their weight. In Cuba it may be 
said, that the rural contribution falls upon 50,000 inhabitants ; 
the others do not pay anything in comparison with the slaves. 
Beside the custom-duty is anticipated, and as the owner of slaves 
sees himself obliged to make great purchases during the year r 
and as he generally borrows upon his crop the custom-duties 
doubly press upon him. Such is the interest ills of the system. 
And what shall we say of those which spring out of the mode 
by which they are adjusted and collected. It is notorions that 
at Havana fraud and contraband amounts to 40 per cent., and in 
Santiago de Cuba of 70 per cent.* From this one can judge that 
which happens in points less is watached by the superior authori- 
ty, and where scandalous fortunes are made in a short time 
by employees who have not refrained, while exercising their func- 
tions, from living in an ostentacious style. While speaking to 
the reader of the concessions and prevarications of employees of 
every class and category, I will rely upon the best authority in 
the matter, to wit : the Attorney of the Royal Treasury. " The 
employees," says Vasques Queipo, " who have served in the 
island of Cuba upon small salaries, compared to the want of 
supplies in the country, insult, when in Spain, the honest poverty 
of the employees there, rivaling, as they do, in luxury and pro- 
perty, the nobility itself of the highest class, and even the most 
august personages."t The audacity of the custom house em- 
ployees rose to such a point in Sto. de Cuba, in these last times, 
that the state collected hardly anything. It is not solely in the 
maratime customs where these frauds are committed, but, also, 
in the administration of the country taxes ! Thus the collector, 
charged with the collection of tax upon incomes, with reason or 

"Information scbre Reformas, tomo 1", page 243. 
t Information Fiscal, p. 193. 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 47 

without it, supposes that the proprietor confesses less thau what 
he should ; and, to avoid any difficulty, the proprietor hastens 
to pay, without taking any receipt therefor, the one-half of the 
difference found between his calculation and that of the collec- 
tor. It is unnecessary to mention that this one-half never enters 
into the cash-box of the state. Whenever a plantation is sold, 
the administrator of the landed tax ought to go to where he may 
meet the proprietor, in order that he may be assured of the 
number of his slaves. But the proprietor and the administrator 
have an understanding, thus avoiding the journcjy by means of 
a certificate — which is paid for according to the value of the 
property. As large properties are treated as small estates, it is 
easy to understand how great a sum must necessarily be derived 
from this exaction in a year. 

The delegates for Cuba had reason for asking a reform of the 
tributary system, ruinous and demoralizing as it is. They 
asked, in order that this cancer of immorality might be extir- 
pated, that the custom houses should be siippressed, and all the 
exactions practised in connection with them — the gavels, vexa- 
tions, extortions ; and that there might be substituted in lieu, a 
fixed tax, which ought to be about six per cent on the net income* 
and which would be sufficient to cover the expenses of the esti- 
mates. 

The answer of the government was not delayed. On the 13th 
of February, 1867, that is to say, a month after the report of the 
delegates, there appeared in the Official Gazette, a royal decree, 
reforming the tributary system. The custom houses were not 
suppressed, but there appeared a direct tax of 14 per cent upon 
incomes ! Let us understand aright these innovations. The 
tax had been established in this way upon the income of real 
property, on commercial, industrial and professional enterprizes, 
in such a manner that nothing, except the churches and property 
of state escaped the fixed tax — ten per cent net of which was 
destined for state purposes, and four per cent for the municipali- 
ties. The delegates from Cuba and Porto Rico protested against 
such an enormous contribution, " after having demonstrated," 
said they, " from official figures, that a tax of six per cent on 



48 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

net incomes would be sufficient to cover the necessities of the 
estimates, how can it be figured out that the government, making 
a mixed report upon the old and new systems combined, should 
not interfere with the custom houses, notwithstanding all their 
inconveniences, but establish a direct tax of fourteen per cent ? 
At the same time that the Antilles hoped to see the contribu- 
tions discontinued, the Mother Country adopts a plan by which, 
retaining all the annoyances that the custom houses, the duties 
differential as between flags and other gavels impose upon com- 
merce, there is added an enormous direct contribution in 
the examination of which their representatives neither had a 
share, nor did they give their approbation. The truth is, that 
$7,355,230 of former imposts have been abolished ; but there re- 
mains $24,997,000, which, witlrthe addition of ten per cent upon 
taxable wealth, ought to raise the sum to $43,959,903 — that is to 
say, $11,107,670 over and beyond the former estimates,,-— with- 
out counting the estimate municipal. But the delegates were 
preaching in a desert ; their commission ended at the moment 
when the " reform of the tributary system " had been effected, 
and there was nothing left to do but to dismiss them with fine 
words, such as these which were used by the Queen : " Love 
makes no distinction as between distances. My children in Cuba 
and Porto Rico are, in reality, as dear to me as those of the 
other provinces." This mode of comprehending love will prob- 
ably cause the loss of Cuba to Spain. 

Without loss of time there was sent out to Havana an able 
functionary in order to inaugurate a system of estimates. He 
dischared the duty to the satisfaction of the government, if one 
were to judge by the honorable distinctions of which he was the 
object, but the contributors (tax payers) did not participate in 
the enthusiasm, for in place of 14 they found themselves obliged 
to pay 18, 21, and even 24 per cent, upon the net income. So 
admirable was the exactitude of the calculations, or the honor 
which presided over the distribution of the estimates. 

The assessors of the taxes in each jurisdiction, in each settle- 
ment, in each municipality, were liable to> commit errors, or 
might perpetrate injustice, but the origin of the evil was, without 
doubt, in the faults committed at the treasury, where the sum of 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 49 

the public wealth was greatly exaggerated, besides the applica- 
tion of the rules for raising the estimates were enforced with a 
frightful rigor ; the pastry cook, who in his store sold liquors 
with his cakes, was obliged to pay as a liquor dealer, and as 
though that was his regular business. 

The proprietors of untilled lands had to pay upon thein at 
the same rate as upon the adjoining cultivated fields. The pro- 
prietor in such case preferred to abandon his lands, as did also 
the keepers of country taverns who found themselves in the 
same condition. The lawyers gave up the practice of their pro- 
fession in order to escape the tax! At Bayamo, a poor city of 
5,000 inhabitants, five lawyers in a single day gave up their pro- 
fession. How many remained? One at least; too many for 
Spain ; Don Carlos Emanuel Cespedes, to-day President of the 
Cuban Republic ! Under this system the government instead of 
collecting $43,000,000, which it expected, was not able to realize 
the one-half of that sum. There was a reason for persisting in 
its plan. 

Against the expectations of the country this tributary system 
was continued in full play for the economic year of 1868. More- 
over, the head officer of the treasury invented a means of coin- 
ing money upon the moment without looking to the estimates ; 
he obliged all the contributors (tax payers) to take out a stamped 
paper in the office of the administration for their lists, costing 
25 cents each, which produced for the treasury an additoinal 
$25,000 

This system of exactionion and taxes, so extravagant as they are, 
never fails to produce corresponding fruits. The cash of the fisc 
varies more rapidly than it fills, and it has a horror of emptiness. 

The collect of arrears is rigrously recommended with the 
premiums belonging to their corresponding duties. It seizes 
upon the oxen of the small laborer with which he tills the soil, 
or the horse, which serves the poor cattle raiser, used in carry- 
ing his vegetables to market. It puts up at public sale the 
estates of insolvent proprietors, and thus it happens as was the 
case at Bayamo, there is no bidder, or he is assassinated 
on the next day. Hence there appeared in the Yara and Bay- 



50 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

amo county the banner of insurrection with the inscription, 
Long life to Prim, down with the taxes. As yet there was still 
hoisted the old fllag of Castile. The shells of the Spanish soldiers 
bore this away, and when it reappeared in the morning of another 
day, there had been substituted in place of the yellow and red 
colors of the old Monarchy the red, white and blue of the New 
State. 

Wise economists, illustrious authors of a determined tributary 
system, you have not read the 8th Satire of Juvenal. " If ac- 
cording your wishes Heaven were to concede to you the gov- 
erment of a province limited to your ambitious views, have 
pity of your own allies and their misery ; they have been chip- 
ped away to their marrow bones. Before the situation of our 
allies were less desolate, piles of dollars where heaped up in 
in their coffers, and now ? Shall we get hold of them ? Some yoke 
of oxen, some other animals, . . a miserable field. . . Take care 
I counsel you ; robbery and violence are objects of danger to 
the brave who suffer. You have wished to take away all then- 
gold and silver; but it is necessary to leave a dollar, the 
sword and their darts. To the despoiled. . . . That which has 
been said is not coming from the air, it is an oracle as certain 
as that of the Sybil. 



VIII. 



What resources are left for Spanish dominion. The treasury 
is empty, as much so as the Banco Espanol. The municipal 
moneys are not sufficient for the many necessities, — as, for in- 
stance, the lighting of the streets by gas, the police, the keeping 
up of hospitals and food for the prisoners. Between the month 
of October, 1868, and the month of February, 1869, in the capi- 
tal of the Eastern Department, various individuals, including the 
alcalde mayor, provided means out of their own pockets for the 
support of 400 or 500 men in the prisons. On the 30th of Sep- 
tember, 1868, the governor of the same department convoked a 
junta of prominent men in the palace for the purpose of confer- 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 51 

ring with them with respect to the steps to be taken towards 
meeting the necessities of the moment, either by voluntary sub- 
scriptions or by the levying of new taxes. The city was in debt 
for gas furnished during the preceding fourteen months ; besides 
it owed nine months' salary to professors of schools of the 
second class, and seven months' pay to the officers of police. 

Nearly all the cities of the island — Mantanzas, Trinidad, Ha- 
vana, even, were more or less in the same condition, and found 
themselves obliged to submit to extraordinary sacrifices in order 
to get along at all. How did this happen, when an additional 
tax was given them of four per cent by the new law ? It is that 
the administration, which collects the contributions, applies them 
entirely, even" in the matter of the ten per cent, and the munici- 
palities collect the excess. As yet it has been found impractic- 
able to collect the part coming to the State. Those who furnish 
supplies to the government, under contract, are not paid ; and, 
notwithstanding, they are obliged to fulfill their compromises ! 
In short, the authorities are constantly employing merchant ves- 
sels and do pay not the owners for the service rendered. 

Such is the situation of the Spanish administration in the pre- 
sence of the insurrection. There is left no other resource but 
a well instructed, suffering, but badly-fed soldiery. Will this 
army be sufficient to preserve Cuba to the Spaniards ? This is 
hardly probable, considering the ruinous state in which the in- 
come of the island and of Spain are now found. It is true that 
something may be, for a time, expected in the way of gifts from 
the rich Peninsulars of Cuba ; but soon these resources will have 
been wasted, which are put in equilibrium by the sacrifices im- 
posed in a contrary sense, and which the Creoles will continue to 
impose at any price, with the view of relieving their country 
of the humiliating and ruinous yoke under which their hopes 
have, for so many years, been crushed. It is unnecessary to say, 
that the disciplined troops of Spain are superior to bands 
wanting in experience, and to recruits who have only come into 
action since the revolution. 

The first has been made so at the expense of the Island of 
Cuba, and are better armed than the forces in Spain ; the sec- 



52 CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

ond are imperfectly armed, having common guns of chase, 
and others of all sorts of calibre ; the y are without artil- 
lery, and are wanting in munitions. But even such as they 
are their soldiers keep in check $50,000 men ; thanks to the ex- 
tent of territory and the difficulty of communication ; and of 
these 30,000 are regular troops. Contraband ministers, though 
with great difficulty, and in quantities by no means sufficient, to 
this want. Arms and munitions do arrive, and they will be had 
in great abundance as soon as the United States shall have 
recognized the Cubans as belligerents. The generals who com- 
mands the Spanish forces are, doubtless, abler men than those 
who lead the improvised insurgent army, but they have fearful 
allies, yellow fever and the rainy season. For the first time 
the Spanish government will regret having left the Island with- 
out roads. A.M this is bad enough without counting upon for- 
eign intervention. In truth, is it a good time for the 
United States to let such an occasion pass by for causing 
Spain to lose a prize which the former nation has so much de- 
sired? Certainly its intervention in this case would be more 
plausible than that which was exerted in favor of Juarez in 
Mexico. Numerous symptoms presage that this intervention 
will not be looked for in vain for a long time in Cuba. 

The party of annexation is not the strongest. Certain highly 
intelligent persons have experienced a certain inquietude with 
respect to the results that would follow annexation to the United 
States. They fear an invasion which would put out of posses- 
sion the actual holders of the soil, or those coming after them, 
and that all lucrative branches of industry would be mon- 
opolized by others, not by violence, but by the superiority of 
one race over the other in physical and moral energy, drawn 
together by the desire of gain. 

It is certain that in this struggle for life (battle of life) the ad- 
vantage would not be in favor of the desendants of the Spaniards, 
and the selection would be at the expense of old possessors. To 
support this view, Florida, Texas and California are cited. 
Notwithstanding all this, the Cubans will not retrocede befere 
this extreme view of the subject, and they will end the matter by 



CUBA UNDEB SPANISH BULE. 53 

throwing themselves into the arms ot the Americans. Is this 
to say that the Cubans are incapable of conquering their in- 
dependence ? No, sooner or later they will aquire it ; but I do 
not think they can preserve it for a long time, as well be cause 
of their geographical situation as of their neighboring relations ; 
likewise because of the want of political instruction which 
is common to them as has been the ease with all other peo- 
ple emancipated from the darkrand smothering dominions of 
Spain. These considerations are not bidden out of sight by the 
majority of the Cubans, and for this reason they contented them- 
selves with asking a reform of Spain, which conceded in time, 
would have saved all. Spain has never wished, either in the 
past or at this time to Concede anything. She contents herself 
by promising from the mouths of her ministers the concession of 
reforms (which arc. not set forth) when the insurrection shall have 
been quelled. "Not before, answers the interrogator? You 
have deceived us so often that we do not trust your word.'' The 
reply is hard, let us see if it is merited. In !So7, to go no further 
back Spain, gave herself a very liberal Constitution. It is 
known for how a small time this was enjoyed'; but in any event it 
was 1 supposed that the fsland of Cuba was to have participated in 
the benefit to flow from the new Constitution, and she was in 
effect, invited to send d< putiesto the Cortes to the end that her 
necessities might be known and her interetss be discussed. Very 
well ; The deputies at the Capital, compelled, a strange thing to 
say, by the most advanced fraction of the Cortes, refused to re- 
ceive them, arid it was decided that the Island should be govern- 
ed by special laws, to be enacted by the Cortes in the absence 
of the legitimate representatives of Cuba. The Cortes had so 
much to do afterwards that they did not find time to enact these 
famous laws. Since 1837, that is to say, for a perionof 32 years, 
the mean rate of human life, the Island of Cuba hoped for the 
execution of the promise of the Cortes and, in particular, from 
the liberals of Spain ; while expecting it this titanic labor is 
submitted to the regimen of the arbitrary. This is not the oc- 
casion to say : " Beautiful Phillis is always in despair when she 
is always expecting." But so far as the Spanish government is 



5i TUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

concerned — she never despairs, but rather produces this feeling, 
on the contrary, when there is taken into account the pleni- 
tude of her powers over the Island of Cuba. For example, in 
1869, their was a necessity for a law (a thing dealt out in small 
doses), and not knowing what to borrow money upon she thought 
of her daughter, the Ever Faithful, The Island of Cuba. A 
loan of $10,000,000, at 7$ percent., was negociated, reimburs- 
able in 15 years by successive payments, and to secure this the 
income of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Phillippines were pledged 
for the same number of years. It is certain that the guaranty 
was sufficient, and a government which rinds herself reduced to 
such a necessity in order to contract a loan under such condi- 
tions does not enjoy a wonderful credit. 

Notwithstanding the money lenders at length repented, 
even before commencing to fulfill their compromise. The 
Spanish liberals in order to damage Narvaez' Administration, 
gave the. buyers to understand that as the Cortes had not voted 
the loan, it was consequently unconstitutional, and they would 
incur the risk of having it repudiated by a liberal majority, that 
which bring about as a result — the total loss of their money. 

The discretionary power of Spanish rule in Cuba does not 
produce barren results. P. Claret knows something of that, 
for he received 30,000 francs for the part he had in it as a mut- 
ter of right. Likewise the camarilla (little room,) knew some- 
thing of this, for by it there is sent out upon each change of 
ministers a set of birds of prey that they may set themselves up- 
on the estimates, linked, as they are, with the New World. 

The Creoles compare their country to a green meadow in 
which the horses of Andaleia come to feed and grow fat. 

These do not murmer immoderately at the pastures, but as the 
beasts are removed in detail the grass serves for grazing 
purposes evendown to the ground. After the Revolution of 
September, which promised to correct all abuses and repair all 
matters of injustice, Lopez de Ayala, before known as a drama- 
tic author, recruited in the lower part of the Spanish Parnassus 
an army of functionaries, magistrates and administrators un- 
provided for, with whom the employees then in Cuba were to be 



* CUBA UNDER SPANISH RULE. 55 

superceded, who, at any rate, knew something of their duties. 
" Good mana for these Gaditanos, said the Creoles, for us there 
has been no change, except in masters." The thought which 
gave voice to these words is that they wished the mana to fall 
likewise into their own hands, and this is quite natural, inas- 
much as they pay the expenses. 

Ah ! the revolution of September is not destined, it seems to im- 
prove matters more than the other pronouneiamientos of a change 
ministry, of constitutions, of former reigns. 

Poor sheep how you are always sheared ! To this everything 
comes as said Saco, renowned and respected Son of Cuba, 
this money question is of more consequence than the political. 
If Cuba were not, in fact, considered to be so rich, the question 
econnomical would not be so deplorable. Spain must have her 
hands free, which she can then, at pleasure, put into the money 
bags of Cuba, and will never consent that this privilege shall be 
taken away by the adoption of a regime colonial, founded upon 
the principles of aidnomia (free government, in all things, recog- 
nizing only tne sovereignty of Spain). This the Creoles well 
understand,, and for this reason those who have taken up arms 
will not be ready to lay them down. 

From these resulted the scrupulous slowness of the money 
dealers, who demanded of the Minister other guaranties or the 
revision of the contract. The Minister thus replied : The Con- 
stitution of 1837 declares that the Ultramarine provinces shall 
be governed by especial laws. But as these have not been pro- 
mulgated, and until this is done, the Royal Power is fitted to go- 
vern them according to its will, to decree the imposts and em- 
ploy them as to it shall seem fit without having to consult the 
Cortes. For this reason the government of the Queen has the 
perfect right, without the vote of the ^Cortes, to hypothecate the 
income from its possessions beyond sea and contract the loan i n 
question. Is this not clear ? This was not sufficiently so for 
the bankers, who prefered to lose the deposit made.* 

If General Dulce on his arrival, clothed as he was with dis- 
cretional powers, had proclaimed and organized such a regimen, 
i 

* This was paid by the provisions of a new loan of 100,000,000 francs celebrated with 
the Provisional Government. The rate was 12^ per cent. 



66 CUBA UNDER SPANISH HULE. 

he would assuredly have given the death blow to the. revolution, 
because all the moderate and sensible portion, of the population, 
which is the wealthiest and most influential, would have rallied 
around hi q. Either induced by persuasion or force, unfortu- 
nately, -he did not comprehend the situation, or did not hold 
sufficient powers. He was impelled forward l>y a ridiculous 
pride of which the Spanish statistics have given so many proofs 
as well as by a desire to preserve the milk cow for all those 
called to govern her, or else Dulce or the government pre- 
ferred to conquer the revolution bj' arms and punishments in- 
flicted And we behold the spectacle of revolutionists shooting 
rebels \'ov the same fault that they themselves have committed. 
The men most compromised in the last revolution are the 
Dulces, the Letonas, the Escalantes, the Gaballerb de Eodas, 
those who liave solicited or accepted the honor of going to Cuba 
to represent such a roll, not to mention General Prim, the hero 
of the /»;.'. iamientos, and of the last revolution, who has 
offered in ful) parliament to go with the whole Spanish army, 
if that were accessary, to avenge the honor of insulted Castile, 
aad cons rve the national integrity. But, I believe that the 
illnstrious ( reneral, with his good Toledo blade, and tha entire 
Spanish Mild do better not to go to America. Waiting 

for tliis event, the Spanish people who pretend to give much 
attention to business, would do well not to occupy themselves 
with the just complaints of the Cubans and of the actual situa- 
tion, ft vi • : i m that the matter was critical for all, and that 
the quickest solution would be better both for Spain aud Cuba. 
The time has gone by when the lips of the Ever Faithful, the 
daughter of Spain, can be firmly sealed up, those lips on which 
if a generous voice had lifted itself in Parliament, or in the 
press, it would have encountered a minister to reply to the 
point in this manner : " Hear well, no murmur reaches us from 
the other side of the Atlantic, Cuba demands nothing, she asks 
for reforms of no kind, and if this were not so, who has hindered 
her for so many years from demanding them ?" A voice coming 
from exile answered : " How eould she demand them with her 
press full of sarcasms, her corporations without enterprise, and 



CUBA UNDER SPANISH EULE. 57 

her inhabitants deprived of the right of holding public meetings 
or of representation?" On the other hand — how many con- 
spiracies, howm any insurrections has the government not been 
called upon to put down ? How much blood has there been 
spilt in the struggle and on the scaffold ? How many sons oi 
Cuba have been obliged to abandon their property, their fami- 
lies, their country, all that they loved to free themselves from 
persecutions ? The list would be very large, likewise, it would 
be full of conspiracies, because in the last thirty years there 
have been more than sixteen. The silence is not because she has 
no aspirations, it is the silence of sarcasm. So it was decided 
to call representatives to Madrid, without other rights than to 
come to discuss, in the ante-chamber of the Ministry, plans of 
reform in company with an equal number of commissioners 
elected by the government, and known in advance to be ene- 
mies of every radical reform. They were invited by tha min- 
ister to treat of all questions freely except three : political, 
religious, and monarchical unity, and were dismissed after 
having been humiliated and confounded, without other advan- 
tage than bringing along with them for their fellow citizens 
a summary of taxes larger than ever, in the preparation of 
which they hae not been permitted to participate. 

The position we have painted is indeed gloomy, but in truth 
it is none other than the truth, to a certain extent, softened. 

It will now be understood whether upon Cubans or Spaniards 
the responsibility shall rest for a separation, now almost real- 
zed, between the Mother Country and the Colony. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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